{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_18486/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_18486","id":"gutenberg_18486","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18486","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christian life","Devotional literature"],"text":"Produced by Curtis Weyant and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\nQuiet Talks on Following the Christ\n\nBy S. D. Gordon\n\nAuthor of \"_Quiet Talks On Power_,\" \"_Quiet Talks on Prayer_,\" \"_Quiet\nTalks On Our Lord's Return_,\" etc.\n\nNew York Chicago Toronto\nFleming H. Revell Company\nLondon and Edinburgh\n\n\n\n\nCopyright, 1913, by\nFleming H. Revell Company\n\n\nNew York: 158 Fifth Avenue\nChicago: 17 North Wabash Ave.\nToronto: 25 Richmond Street, W.\nLondon: 21 Paternoster Square\nEdinburgh: 100 Princes Street\n\n\n\n\nContents\n\n\n\nIntroduction\n\n   I. The Lone Man Who Went Before\n  II. The Long, Rough Road He Trod\n III. The Pleading Call To Follow\n  IV. What Following Means\n      1. A Look Ahead\n      2. The Main Road\n      3. The Valleys\n      4. The Hilltops\n   V. Shall We Go?\n  VI. Finger-Posts\n VII. Fellow-Followers\nVIII. The Glory of the Goal,--face To Face\n\n\n\n\nIntroduction\n\n\nThese talks have been given, in substance, at various gatherings in\nGreat Britain, Continental Europe, and parts of the Far East, during the\npast four years. The simple directness of the spoken word has been\nallowed to stand. Portions of chapters three, four, six, and eight have\nappeared at various times in \"The Sunday School Times.\"\n\nIf any who read may find some practical help through the Master's\ngracious touch upon these simple words, they are earnestly asked to add\ntheir prayers that that same gracious touch may be felt by others\nwherever these talks may go.\n\n\n\n\nThe Lone Man Who Went Before\n\n\n\nA Call to Friendship.\n\n\nOne day I watched two young men, a Japanese and an American, pacing the\ndeck of a Japanese liner bound for San Francisco. Their heads were close\ntogether and bent down, and they were talking earnestly. The Japanese was\nsaying, \"Oh, yes, I believe all that as a theory, but is there _power_ to\nmake a man _live_ it?\"\n\nHe was an officer of the ship, one of the finest boats on the Pacific. The\nAmerican was a young fellow who had gone out to Japan as a government\nteacher, and when his earnest sort of Christianity led to his dismissal he\nremained, and still remains, as a volunteer missionary. With his rare gift\nin personal touch he had won the young officer's confidence, and was\nexplaining what Christianity stood for, when the Japanese politely\ninterrupted him with his question about power. The tense eagerness of his\nmanner and voice let one see the hunger of his heart. He had high ideals\nof life, but confessed that every time he was in port, the shore\ntemptations proved too much, and he always came back on board with a\nfeeling of bitter defeat. He had read about Christianity and believed it\ngood in theory. But he knew nothing of its power.\n\nThrough his new American friend he came into personal touch with Christ,\nthen and there. And up to the day we docked he put in his spare time\nbringing other Japanese to his friend's stateroom, and there more than one\nof them knelt, and came into warm touch of heart with the Lord Jesus.\n\nJust so our Lord Jesus draws men, Oriental and Occidental alike. Just so\nHe drew men when He was down here. He had great drawing power. Men came\neagerly wherever they could find Him.\n\nHe drew all sorts of men. He drew the Jews, to whom He belonged racially.\nHe drew the aggressive, domineering Romans, and the gentler cultured\nGreeks. He drew the half-breed Samaritans, who were despised by both Jew\nand foreigner, as not being either one thing or the other. The military\nmen and the civilians, the cultured and the unlettered, the official class\nand those in private life, all alike felt the strong pull upon their\nhearts of His presence.\n\nThe pure of heart, like gentle Mary of Bethany, and the guileless\nNathanael, were drawn to Him. And the very opposite, those openly bad in\ntheir life, couldn't resist His presence, and the call away from their\nlow, bad level, but eagerly took His hand and came up. Fisherfolk and\nfarmers, dwellers in the city and country, scholars and tradesmen, crude\nand refined, richly clad and ragged,--all sorts contentedly rubbed elbows\nand jostled each other in the crowds that came to listen, and stayed to\nlisten longer, and then went away to come back again for more.\n\nThis was why He came--to draw men to Himself. Our Lord Jesus was the face\nof God looking longingly into men's faces. And they couldn't withstand the\nappeal of that gentle strong face. He was the voice of God talking into\nmen's ears; and the music of that low, quiet voice thrilled and thralled\ntheir hearts. He was the hand of God, strong and warm, reaching down to\ntake men by the hand and give them a strong lift up and back to the old\nEden life. And, in time, as men put their hand in His, they came to feel\nthe little knotted place in the palm of that outstretched hand, and the\nfeel of it went strangely into their inmost being. He was the heart of\nGod, tender and true, beating rhythmically in time and tune with the human\nheart. And the music had, and has, strange power of appeal to human\nhearts, and power to sway human lives like a great wind in the trees.\n\nOur Lord Jesus was the person of God in human shape and human garb, come\ndown close, to draw us men back again to the old trysting place under the\nTree of Life. And in every generation, and every corner of the earth,\nthen, and ever since then, men of every colour and sort have come back,\nand found how His presence eases the tug of life on many a steep roadway,\nand more, much more.[1]\n\nAnd our Lord Jesus drew men into personal friendship with Himself. He\ndidn't like the long range way of doing things. Keeping men at arm's\nlength never suited Him. He gave the inner heart touch, and He longed for\nthe touch of the innermost heart. He was our friend. He asked that we be\nHis friends, real friends of the rare sort, of which one's life has only a\nfew.\n\nAnd He asked, too, that all else that we brought to Him should be that\nwhich grew out of this personal friendship. He gave and did all that He\ndid and gave, because He was our friend. He asked only for what grew out\nof a real heart friendship with Himself. He longed to have us give all,\nyet only what our hearts couldn't hold back. His friendship has one thing\npeculiar to itself. He has no favourites, in our common thought of that\nword, among the countless numbers who have come to be included in His\ninner circle of friends. Yet He gives to each such a distinctive personal\ntouch of His own heart that you feel yourself to be on closest terms. He\nis nearer and closer than any other, and your longing is to be as near and\nclose to Him in life as He is to you in His heart.[2]\n\nNow, because we are His friends and He is our friend, He calls us to\nfollow Him. It is a privilege of friendship. He would share with you and\nwith me the things of His own heart and life. He wants to have us come\nclose up to Himself, and live close up. And the only way we can do it is\nby giving a glad \"Yes\" to His invitation, and following so close that we\nshall be up to Himself. Nothing less than this contents His longing.\n\nBut there is more than friendship here. He has a plan of action in His\nheart. It is a wide-reaching plan, clear beyond our idea of what\nwide-reaching means. It is nothing less than a plan for the whole world,\nthe entire race, for winning it up to the old Eden life of purity and of\nclose walking with God. That plan is the passion of His great heart. He\nhas held nothing back--spared nothing--that it might be done. He is\nthinking of that plan as He comes eagerly to you and me, now, all afresh,\nand with His heart in His voice says \"Follow Me.\" This is a bit of His\nplan for me and for you--that we shall be partners with Him in His plan\nfor the world.\n\nAnd yet--and yet--this helping Him, this partnership, this working with\nHim in His plan, is to be because of our friendship, His and mine, His and\nyours. It is a more than friendship He is thinking of. But that more is\n_through_ the friendship. It grows out of the friendship. Only so does it\nwork out His real plan.\n\n\n\nClimbing the Hilltops.\n\n\nNow this \"Follow Me\" of His, if taken into one's life, and followed up,\nwill come to mean two things. There are two great things that stand\nsharply out in our Lord Jesus' life down here, His _characteristics_ and\nHis _experiences_. I mean what He was in Himself; and what He went\nthrough, suffered, enjoyed, and accomplished; the Man Himself, and the\nMan's experiences. These are the two things about which these simple talks\nwill be grouped. Our Lord Jesus wants us to follow that we may climb up\nthe hill as high as He did in these things.\n\nFollowing means climbing. A friend has told recently of a journey taken to\na certain village in New England from which, she had been told, a fine\nview could be got of the White Mountains. On arrival it seemed that a low\nhill completely shut out the view, to her intense disappointment. But her\ncompanion, by and by, called from the top of the low hill and eagerly\nbeckoned her to come up. A bit of climbing quickly brought her to where\nthe magnificent beauty of the mountains broke upon her delighted eyes.\n\nOur Lord Jesus climbed the hilltops, both in His character and in His\nexperiences. He wants us to share those rare hilltops with Him. He has\ngone away ahead of any other. He is the Lone Man in both character and\nexperiences. And in some of His experiences He will ever remain the lone\noccupant of the hilltop. But He is eager for our companionship. He longs\nfor the personal touch. He wants us to have all He has got. He has blazed\na way through the thicket where there was no path before. He left the\nplain marks on the trees as He went through, so we could surely find the\nway. And now He eagerly beckons us to follow.\n\nBut following means climbing. It's a hill road, sometimes down hill,\nsometimes up hill. Which makes stiffer climbing? Usually the one you are\ndoing seems the harder. Sometimes the road is a dead level between hills.\nAnd dead level walking--the monotonous dead-a-way, with no bracing air, no\ninspiring outlook--is often much harder than down hill or up. And so it\ntoo is climbing. Following means climbing. He climbed. He made the high\nclimb all alone. No other ever had the courage to climb so high as He.\nIt's easier since He has smoothed down the road with His own feet; yet it\nisn't easy; still it is easier than not climbing; that is, when you reckon\nthe whole thing up--with _Him_ in.\n\nNow He asks you and me to climb. He cannot climb for you. That is, I mean\nHe cannot do the climbing you ought to do. He has climbed for us, marked\nout the hill path, and made it possible for us to climb up too. But the\nafter-climbing He cannot do for us. Each must do his own climbing. So\nlungs grow deeper, and heart-action stronger, and cheeks clearer, and\nmuscles firmer. Step by step we must pull up, maybe through a fog, with no\nview of beauty, no bracing air yet, only His strong beckoning hand.\n\nBut those who reach up and get hold of hands with Him, and get up even to\nsome of the lower reaches of the climb, stand with full hearts and dumb\nlips. They can't find words to tell the exhilaration of the climb, the\nbracing air, the far outlook, and, yet more, the wondrous presence of the\nChief Climber, even though there's a bit of smarting of face and hands\nwhere the thorny tanglewood tore a bit as you went by.\n\nJust now I want you to come with me for a bit of a look at the Lone Man,\nwho has gone before. I mean at the Man Himself. We want to take a look at\nthe characteristics of His life; what the Man was in His character.\n\nAnd please understand me here. Following does not mean that we are to try\nto imitate these characteristics. No, it's something both simpler and\neasier, and deeper and better than that. It means that, as we companion\nwith Him daily, these same traits will appear in us. It is not to be\nimitation simply, good as that might seem, yet always bringing a sense of\nfailure, and that sense the thing you remember most. It is to be some One\nliving His life in you, coming in through the open door of your will. Your\npart is opening up, and keeping open, listening and loving and obeying.\nThe touchstone of the \"Follow Me\" life is not imitation but following; not\ncopying but obeying; not struggle--though there will be struggle--but\ncompanionship, a companionship which nothing is allowed to take the fine\nedge off of.\n\nAnd please remember, too, the meaning for us sinful men of these\ncharacteristics of His. With us character is a result of choice, and then\nnearly always--or should I cut out that \"nearly\"? the earnest man in the\nthick of the fight finds no \"nearlys\"--it's always with him--character is\nalways the result of a fight to keep to the choice decided upon.\n\nNow with greatest reverence for our Lord Jesus, let me say, _it was so\nwith Him_. He was as truly God as though not man. Yet He lived His\nlife,--He insisted on living His life, on the human level.[3] He was as\ntruly human as though not peculiarly divine. He had the enormous advantage\nof a virgin birth, a divine fatherhood with a human motherhood. And, be it\nsaid with utmost reverence, He needed that advantage for the terrific\nconflict and the tremendous task of His life, such as no other has known.\nBut His character as a man--the thing we are to look at now--was a result\nof choice, and choice insisted upon against terrible odds.\n\nThis gives new meaning to His \"Follow Me.\" He went the same sort of road\nthat we must go. He insisted on treading _our_ road. It was not one made\neasier for His specially prepared feet. It was the common earth road every\nman must go, who will. And so the way He went we can go if we will, every\nstep of it. By His help working through our wills, we _can_, and, please\nGod, surely we will.\n\n\n\nThe Dependent Life.\n\n\nThere were _three traits in His character upward_, that is in His relation\nwith His Father. First of all He chose to live _the dependent life_. He\nrecognized that everything He was, and had, and could do, was received\nfrom the Father, and could be at its true best only as the Father's direct\ntouch was upon it. This was the atmosphere in which all His human powers\nwould do their best. He had nothing of Himself, and could do nothing of\nHimself. This is the plan the Father has made for human life and\neffort.[4] Our Lord Jesus recognized this and lived it. Our common word\nfor this is humility. Humility is a matter of relationship. It means\nkeeping one's relationship with the Father clear and dominant. And this in\nturn radically affects and controls our relationship with our fellows.\n\nThere were three degrees or steps in the dependent life He chose to live.\nThere was the giving up part, then the accepting for Himself the plan of\nhuman life, and then accepting it even to the extent of yielding to wrong\nand shameful treatment, without attempting to assert His rights against\nsuch treatment. These were the three steps in His humility. In Paul's\nstriking phrase, He \"emptied out\" of Himself all He had in glory with the\nFather before coming to the earth; He decided to come to the human level\nand live fully the human life of utter dependence; and He carried this to\nthe extent of being wholly dependent on the Father for righting the wrongs\ndone Him.[5]\n\nThis is God's plan for the human life. It is to be a dependent life. It\nactually is a dependent life, utterly dependent upon Him. It is to be\nlived so. Then only is the fragrance of it gotten. It is part of the\ndependent life--the true human life--that we depend on the Father for\nvindication when wronged, as for everything else.[6]\n\nOur Lord Jesus chose to live this life. There was an entire absence of the\nself-spirit, that is the self-assertive, the self-confident spirit. There\nwas a remarkable confidence in action, but it was confidence in His\nFather's unfailing response to His requests or needs. This sense of utter\ndependence was natural to Him; as indeed it is natural to man unhurt by\nsin. And then He carefully cultivated it. As He came in contact with the\nvery opposite all around Him, He set Himself--indeed He had to set\nHimself--to keeping this sense of dependence untainted, unhurt by His\nsurroundings.\n\nNow there were three things which naturally grew out of this dependent\nlife, or which naturally are part of it. One was, the sense of His Father,\nand of His Father's presence. In a perfectly simple natural way, He was\nalways conscious of His Father's presence. Is this the meaning--one\nmeaning--of \"blessed are the pure in heart for they shall _see God_\"? And\nthen He doubtless set Himself to cultivate this, as an offset to what He\nfound around Him. He would quietly look up and speak to the Father in the\nmidst of a crowd.[7] This was the natural thing to do. He was more\nconscious of the Father's presence than of the crowd pressing in to get\nnear. When He was speaking to the crowd He knew the Father too was\nlistening. He felt the Father watching as He helped the people. This was\nthe natural thing with Him, the presence of the Father.\n\nWith this there went a second thing, the habit of getting alone to talk\nthings over with the Father. The common word for this is prayer. Without\ndoubt His whole outer life grew out of His inner secret talking things out\nwith the Father. Everything was passed in review here, first of all. This\nnaturally grew out of the consciousness of His Father's presence, and this\nin turn increased that consciousness. So He was in the habit of looking at\neverything through His Father's eyes.\n\nAnd with these two, there was plainly a third thing, a settled sense of\nthe power, the authority, of God's written Word. It was not simply that He\ndid not question it, but there was a deep-rooted sense grown down into\nHis very being that God was speaking in the Book, and that this revelation\nof Himself and His will was _the thing_ to govern absolutely one's life.\nThis points back to a study of the Book. Doubtless that Nazareth shop was\na study shop too. He quoted readily and freely from all portions of the\nOld Testament Bible. He seemed saturated with both its language and its\nspirit. The basis of such familiarity would be long, painstaking,\nprayerful study.\n\nThese three things naturally grew out of the dependent life He had\ndeliberately chosen to live and were a part of it. They were necessary to\nit. These are the lungs and the heart of the dependent life.\n\nNow His \"Follow Me\" does not mean merely that we try to imitate Him in all\nthis. We will naturally long to do so. And He is the example we will ever\nbe eager to follow. But the meaning goes deeper than this. It means that\nas we really come close up in the road behind Him this will come to be the\nnatural atmosphere of our lives. We let _Him_ in, and His presence within,\nyielded to and cultivated and obeyed, will work this sort of thing out in\nour lives. We will come to recognize, and then to feel deep down in our\nspirit, how dependent we are upon Him in everything. We will gradually\ncome to realize intensely that the dependent life is the true natural\nlife. It is God's plan. It reveals wondrously His love. It draws out\nwondrously our love, and radically changes the whole spirit of the life.\n\n\n\nPoor--Except in Spirit.\n\n\nNow of course all this is in sharpest contrast to the common spirit of\nlife as men live, then and now. The spirit that dominates human life\neverywhere is a spirit of independence. And this seems intensified in our\nday to a terrific degree. There is, of course, a good independence in our\ndealings with our fellows. But this is carried to the extreme of\nindependence of every one, even--say it softly--of God Himself.\nCriticising God, ignoring Him, leaving Him severely out so far as we are\nconcerned,--this has become the commonplace. If for a moment He ignored\nus, how quickly things would go to pieces! This has come to be the\ndominant spirit of the whole race to a degree more marked than ever\nbefore, if that be possible.\n\nIt seems to come into life early. I have seen a little tot, whom I could\nwith no inconvenience have tucked under my arm, walking down the road,\nhead up in the air, breathing out an aggressive self-confidence, and\ndefiance of all around, worthy of one of the old-time kings. And I\nrecognized that he had simply absorbed the atmosphere in which his four\nbrief years had been lived.\n\nThis has come to be the inbred spirit of mankind. Everywhere this proud,\nself-assertive, self-sufficient, self-confident, self-aggressive spirit is\nfound, in varying degree. It is coupled sometimes with laughable\nignorance; sometimes with real learning and wisdom and culture. It is\nemphasized sometimes the more by school training, and other such\nadvantages. But through all these accidental things it remains,--the\ndominant human characteristic. The chief letter in man's alphabet is the\none next after h, spelled and written with a large capital. The yellow\nfever--the fever for gold--so increasingly epidemic, is at heart a bit of\nthe same thing. The money gives power, and power gives a certain\nindependence of others, and then a certain compelling of others to be\ndependent on the one who has the money and wields the power. Men\neverywhere say just exactly what they are specially warned against saying,\n\"_my_ power and the might of _my_ hand hath gotten me this wealth.\" They\nforget the words following this in the old Book of God. \"But thou shalt\nremember the Lord thy God, for it is _He_ that giveth thee power to get\nwealth.\"[8]\n\nThis seems to be the picture that underlies that phrase, \"poor in spirit,\"\nwhich the Master declared to be so blessed.[9] He is trying to woo men\naway from the thing that is dominating those all around Him. I have\npuzzled a good bit over the phrase to find out just what was in the\nMaster's mind. Emphasizing the word \"spirit\" seems to bring out the\nmeaning. The blessedness is not in being poor, but in a certain spirit\nthat may control a man. We are all poor in everything except spirit.\n\nThe last degree of poverty is to be a pauper. Now, the simple truth is\nthat we are all--every last man of us--paupers in everything. We haven't a\nthing we haven't got from some one else. We are beneficiaries to the last\ndegree, dependent on the bounty of Another. We are paupers in life itself.\nOur life came to us in the first instance from the creative Hand, through\nthe action of others, and it is being sustained every moment by the same\nHand. We had nothing to do with its coming, and, while we influence our\nlife by living in accord with certain physical laws, still the life itself\nis all the time being supplied to us directly by the same unseen Hand.\n\nWe are paupers in ability, in virtue, in character, in fact in everything.\nWe own nothing; we only hold it in trust. We have nothing except what some\nOne else is supplying. What we call our ability, our genius, and so on,\ncomes by the creative breath breathing afresh upon and through what the\npatient creative Hand has supplied and is sustaining. We are paupers,\nwithout a rag to our bones, or a copper in the pocket we haven't got, not\nhaving a rag to our bones; paupers in everything except----.\n\nThere is an exception. It is both pitiable and laughable. We are\nenormously rich in _spirit_, in our imagination, in our thought of\nourselves. Blessed are they who are as poor in spirit as they actually are\nin everything else. They recognize that they are wholly dependent on some\nOne else, and so they live the dependent life, with its blessed closeness\nof touch with the gracious Provider. In certain institutions are placed\nthose who imagine themselves to be in high social and official rank, and\nin possessions what they are not, who imagine it to such a degree that it\nis best that they be kept apart from others. It would seem like an extreme\nthing to say that these people are spirit-mirrors in which we may partly\nsee ourselves. Yet it would be saying the truth. How laughable, if it were\nnot so overwhelmingly pitiful, must men look to God,--without a stitch to\ntheir backs except what He has given, without a copper in their pockets\nexcept what has been borrowed from His bank, yet strutting up and down the\nstreet of life, heads held high in air, as though they owned the universe,\nand--if it did not sound blasphemous I could add the rest of the fact--and\nwere doing Him a favour by running His world so skilfully! And it grieves\none to the heart to note that this seems to be about as true within Church\ncircles as without. The difference between is ever growing smaller to the\ndisappearing point.\n\nIt was into such an atmosphere, never intenser than in Palestine and\nJerusalem nineteen centuries ago, that the man Christ Jesus came. And He\nhad the moral daring to begin living a dependent life, the true human\nlife, looking up gratefully to the Father's hand for everything. Was it\nany wonder His presence caused such a disturbance in the moral atmosphere\nof the world! He insisted, with the strange insistence of gentleness, on\nliving such a life, through all the extremes that the hating world-spirit\ncould contrive against Him. Out of such a life comes His \"Follow Me.\" And\nin this He is simply calling us back to the original human life as planned\nby God.\n\nNow, of course, in that first step, that great \"emptying out\" step, there\ncan be no following. There He is the Lone Man, unapproachable in the moral\nsplendour of His solitude. But from the time when He came in amongst us as\nJesus, our Brother, the typical Son of man, He was marking out afresh the\noriginal road for our feet. This was the foundation trait in His\ncharacter. He lived the dependent life.\n\n\n\nA Father-pleasing Life.\n\n\nThe second trait in His upward relation was this--He chose to live _a\nFather-pleasing life_. I use those words because He used them.[10] I might\nsay \"consecrated\" or \"dedicated\" or \"surrendered\" or other like words. And\nthese are good words, but in common use we have largely lost their\nmeaning. They are used unthinkingly for something less--much less--than\nthey mean. Perhaps if we use the phrase He used we may be able to get back\nto the thing He meant, and did.\n\nThere are three possible lives open to every man's choice: a bad life, in\nwhich selfishness or passion or both, either refined or coarse, rule; a\ngood, true, natural life; and a Father-pleasing life. By a good, true,\nnatural life I mean, just now, a really Christian life in all that that\nmeans, but lived as if there were no emergency in the world to change\none's habit of life.\n\nYou know an emergency coming into a man's life makes radical changes. You\ngo to bed tonight and ordinarily will sleep out your eight hours in\ncomfort and quiet. If a fire break out in the house, you are up in the\nmiddle of the night, hurrying around, only partly clad, carrying out\nvaluables, or helping turn on water, or something of this sort. Your\nnatural arrangements for the night are all broken up by the fire. An\nemergency may make radical changes in one's life for a little time,\nsometimes for the whole life. Financial reverses may change the whole\nhabit of one's life.\n\nHere's a man who has a well-assured, good-sized income from his business,\nor his inheritance, or both. He lives in a luxuriously appointed home,\nwith many fine pictures and works of art and curios which it is enjoyable\nto have. He has a choice library including some fine costly old prints and\neditions, and enjoys adding rare books on subjects in which he is\nspecially interested. He belongs to some literary and social and athletic\nclubs. He has an interesting family growing up around him whose education\nis being carefully looked after. He is an earnest Bible-loving Christian,\nfaithful in church attendance and church duties, pure in life, and saintly\nin character. He gives liberally to church and benevolent objects,\nincluding foreign missions, which have become a part of the church system\ninto which he fits. And he goes an even, contented round of life, home,\nchurch, club, recreation and so on, year in and out, holding and using the\ngreat bulk of his money for himself. I think of that as one illustration\nof the good, true, natural life.\n\nNow, the Father-pleasing life is radically different in certain things.\nOrdinarily the two would be identical. The true natural life as originally\nplanned for us would be the life pleasing to the Father. But something,\nnot a part of God's plan, has broken into life, a terrible something,\nworse than a fire in the night, or a financial panic that sweeps away your\nall. Sin has wrought fearful havoc; it has made an awful emergency, and\nthis emergency has affected the life and character of all the race, in a\nbad way, terribly, awfully, beyond words to tell, or imagination to\ndepict. The whole earth is in the grip of a desperate moral emergency.\n\nAnd naturally enough this emergency affects the life of any one concerned\nwith this earth. It has affected God's life, and God's plans,\ntremendously. It has broken His heart with grief, and radically changed\nHis plans for His own life. He has made a plan for winning His world away\nfrom its rebellion, its sin, back again to purity and close touch with\nHimself. That plan centred around His Son, and He spared not His own Son,\nbut gave Him up.\n\nAnd that emergency, and that plan of the Father's because of the\nemergency, have affected our Lord Jesus' life on the earth. The whole plan\nof His human life was radically revolutionized by it. The emergency, the\nFather's plan, gripped Him. He turned away from the true, good, natural\nlife which it would have been proper for Him as a man to have lived, and\nHe lived another sort of life. It was an emergency life, a life fitted to\nHis Father's plan, and so the Father-pleasing life.\n\nHe became a homeless man, with all that that means. Would any man have\nenjoyed home-life with all the rare home-joys, the sweetest of all natural\njoys, so much as He? And then the larger circle of congenial friends, the\nenjoyment of music, of exquisite art, the reverent study of the great\nquestions of life, of the wonders of nature whose powers it was given man\nto study and cultivate and develop,[11]--it is surely no irreverence to\nthink of Him both enjoying and gracing such a life, for such was the\noriginal plan of human life as thought out by a gracious Creator.\n\nInstead, He had not where to lay His head, though so wearied with\nceaseless toil. He fairly burned His life out those few years, early and\nlate, ministering to the emergency-stricken crowds, healing their sick,\nfeeding their hunger, raising their dead, comforting broken hearts,\nwinning back sin-stained men and women, teaching the ignorant neglected\nmultitudes, preaching the Father's yearning love, searching out the\nstraying, ceaselessly travelling up and down, without leisure enough to\nsleep or to eat oftentimes, and all this despite the efforts of His\nkinsfolk to restrain His burning intensity.\n\nThis is what I mean by a Father-pleasing life. It was truly the\nconsecrated life, consecrated to His Father's emergency plan for His\nworld. It was the surrendered life, wholly given up to the one passionate\nplan of His Father's broken heart for His earth family.\n\nNow, His \"Follow Me\" does not mean imitation. It does not mean a restless,\naggressive hurrying here and there in meetings and Christian service. It\nmeans that there will be a getting so close that the sweet fever of His\nheart shall be caught by ours. The world-vision of His eyes shall flood\nours. The passion of the Father's heart shall become the passion of our\nhearts. And we shall be controlled in all our lives, our holdings, our\nhabits, _by what He tells us_. It does not mean that we will seek to be\nhomeless as Jesus was, though it may possibly turn out to mean for some of\nus that we shall be homeless even as He.\n\nBut it means that we shall find out _the Father's plan for our lives_.\nAnd when it has become clear, we will set to music pitched in the joyous\nmajor our Lord's own words, \"I do always the things that are pleasing to\nHim.\" And then we will set our lives to that joyous music with its rare\nundertone of the exquisite minor. It may mean Africa for you, or China for\nthis other one. It may mean a plainer home at home, a simpler wardrobe, a\nmore careful use of money. It may mean a new dominant note in your\npreaching, and all the personal influence of your life. It may possibly\nmean what will seem like yet more radical changes. It certainly will mean\na deepening peace within, a closer touch of fellowship with the Lord\nJesus, a wholly new conception of the meaning of prayer, and a radically\nnew experience of the power of God in our own bodies and lives, and in our\ntouch with others. It will mean that the music of His will and ours\nswinging rhythmically together in all things shall sweep our lives even as\nthe strong wind the young saplings.\n\nThis was the second trait in our Lord Jesus' character upward, He lived\nthe Father-pleasing life. To some it will seem like a further step--a\nfourth step--downward in His humility. And it was. The way up is down. The\ndown slant is the beginning of the hilltop road. Going down is the way up;\ndownward in the crowd's estimation; upward into closer touch of\nsympathetic life with God, and in reaching the true ideal of life.\n\n\n\nThe Obedient Life.\n\n\nThe third trait of our Lord Jesus' character upward, in relation with His\nFather, was that He lived _the obedient life_. This is really emphasizing\nwhat has just been said. But it is putting the emphasis on the daily habit\nof His life, rather than on the underneath motive. This was the daily\nspelling out of the first two traits. Obedience became the touchstone by\nwhich everything was tested.\n\nThe touchstone was not men's needs, deeply as that took hold of His heart,\nand shaped so much His life. It was not the thought of service, though\nnever was a life so filled with eager glad service. The touchstone was not\nnatural liking or choice, the proper instinctive reach out of His true\nhuman nature, though this would be strong in Him, the typical Son of Man.\nThis would not be repressed as an unholy or wrong thing. It would only be\ngiven second place, or left out, as it might run across the grain of the\ngreat life-passion. With a fresh touch of awe it may truly be said: He did\nnot come down to earth primarily to die, though He knew beforehand that\nthis would stand out as the great one thing. The death was an item in the\nobedience. He came down to do His Father's will. The path of obedience led\nstraight to the hill of the cross, and He trod that path regardless of\nwhere it led. Obedience was the one touchstone of His life.[12] And it\nwill be the one touchstone of His true follower's life. We shall run\nacross this same vein of bright yellow gold, again and again, as we work\non through this \"Follow Me\" mine. These were the three traits of our Lord\nJesus' character upward, toward His Father. They were not different\nbecause of the emergency of sin He found in the world. They would have\nmarked His life just as fully had there been no sin. But the presence of\nsin caused them to change radically the whole course of the life He\nactually lived.\n\n\n\nSinless by Choice.\n\n\nThen there were _two traits of character inward_, in Himself. One was His\n_purity_. There was the absence of everything that should not be in Him.\nThis is the negative side, though no part of His character called for more\nintense positiveness. Purity means sinlessness. He was sinless. But we\nmust quickly remember what this means, or else there may seem to be no\nfollowing for us, only a wistful gazing where we cannot go. It does not\nmean simply this, that through His peculiar birthright there was freedom\nfrom all taint of sin.\n\nIt means more than this. Sinlessness was a matter of choice with Him, and\nof choice insisted upon. And, be it said reverently, no man ever had a\nstiffer fight to keep true to his purpose than He. He was tempted in all\npoints like as we are. He was tempted more than we. The tempter did his\nbest and worst; he mustered all his cunning and driving power against this\nLone Man. And the temptations were real. I am not concerned over the\nmerely academical questions of the schoolmen here. The practical side is\nthe intense side that takes all one's strength and thought. Practically,\nthat our Lord Jesus was really tempted, means that He could have yielded\nhad He so chosen. That He did not meant real struggle on His part. Not, of\ncourse, that He ever wanted to yield to what was wrong, but temptation was\nnever so subtle, and doing the right never made so difficult as for Him.\nHe suffered in being tempted.[13] His sinlessness meant a decision, then\nmany a time a moist brow, a clenched hand, and set jaw, a sore stress of\nspirit, and deep-breathed continual prayer whose intensity down in His\nheart could never be fully expressed at the lips. The temptation to fail\nto obey, simply not to obey, when obeying meant going through a sore\nexperience was never brought so deftly, so subtly, so repeatedly and\ninsistently to any as to Him. Resisting not only meant the decision, but\nthe strength of resistance against terrific strength of repeated\ninsistence.\n\nHow wondrously human this God-man was in His temptations, in His set\nrefusals, and even more, how human in keeping free from sin. For sin is\nnot human, letting sin in would have been a going down from the human\nlevel. This is the practical meaning of His sinlessness--choice, choice\ninsisted upon, fighting, continual prayer, the Father's help, such as any\nman may have--not more.\n\nThis helps us to see how intensely practical His \"Follow Me\" becomes. It\nis not only that we will want to fight against the incoming of sin because\nwe feel we ought to. But as we get close to Him and breathe in His spirit,\nthere will come an inbred dislike, an intense inner loathing of sin,\nhowever refined it may be in its approach. There will be a continual\ncoming for cleansing in the only fluid that can remove sin--His precious\nblood, and in the only flame that can burn it out--the fire of the Holy\nSpirit.[14] There will be a hardening of the set purpose to be free of\nsin. We can be sinless in _purpose_. There can be a growing sinlessness in\nactual life. And yet all experience goes to show that the nearer we\nactually walk with God the more we shall be conscious of the need of\ncleansing, the more we will talk about our Lord Jesus, and the less and\nstill less about our attainments.\n\nThe second inward trait in our Lord Jesus was the other side of this--His\npositive _goodness_. I mean the presence in Him of all that should be\nthere. This is the exact reverse or complement of the purity. It is the\nother half that must go with that to make a perfect character. I like to\nuse the word \"holiness\" in the sense of whole-ness. He had and developed a\nwhole life. It was fully rounded out. There was nothing lacking that\nshould be there, even as there was nothing present that should not have\nbeen there.\n\nThere is among us a good bit of negative goodness of character. We point\nwith pride to what we don't do of that which is bad or not good. But this\nis a very one-sided sort of thing. Purity and goodness together--purity\nand holiness, wholeness--made the perfect, completed character of our\nLord. And it was so wholly through His choice, His own action, with His\nFather's gracious help working through His choice. And the blessed\ncontagion of the Leader's presence will make an intense longing within to\nfollow Him here too.\n\n\n\nA Fellow-Feeling.\n\n\nThen there were _two outward traits of character_, that is in His\nrelations with His fellow-men, of Nazareth, of Israel, and of all the\nrace. He had _sympathy_ with men; a rare, altogether exceptional sympathy.\n_He felt with men_ in all their feelings and needs and circumstances. His\nfine spirit reached into men's inner spirit, and felt their hunger and\npain and longings and joys, felt them even as they did, and the arms of\nHis spirit went around them to help. And they felt it. They felt that He\nreally understood and felt with them. And so sincere and brotherly was His\nfellow-feeling that they gladly welcomed it as from one really of\nthemselves. To men, this Man, so lone in certain traits and experiences,\nwas their brother, not only in His feeling with them, but in their feeling\ntoward Him.\n\nThere's something peculiar in that word sympathy. It's a warm word. It has\na soft cushion to it. It is a help word. There's something in it that\nmakes you think of a warm strong hand helping, of a soft padding\ncushioning the sharp edges where they touch your flesh. It makes you think\nof a tender, fine spirit breathing in and through your own spirit, even as\nthe soft south wind in the spring warms you, and the bracing mountain wind\nin the summer brings you new life.\n\nOur Lord Jesus had this great trait of sympathy with His fellows. He\n_could_ have it, for He had been through all their experiences. He knew\nthe commonplace round of daily life so common to all the race. Nazareth\ntaught Him that, through thirty of His thirty-three years,--ten-elevenths\nof His life. He knew temptation, cunning, subtle, stormy, persistent. He\nknew the inner longings of a nature awakening, and yet what it meant to be\nheld down by outer circumstances. He knew the sharp test of waiting, long\nwaiting. He knew hunger and bodily weariness, and the pinch of scanty\nfunds. He was homeless at a time when a home would have been most\ngrateful. He knew what it meant to have the life-plan broken, and\nsomething else, a bitter something else thrust in its place.\n\nAnd he knew, too, the sweets of human life, of human love, of the\nhelpfulness of others' sympathy, of the Father's pleased smile, of the\nHoly Spirit's indwelling, of the wondrous inner peace that follows\nobedience in hard places, of the joys of service, of the delight of being\nable to sympathize. His experience ran through the whole diapason of human\nfeelings, and so He can find a key-note in every one of its tones for the\nsweet rich symphony of sympathy.\n\nThere is again an exception to be noted here. There could be no\nfellow-feeling in choosing wrong, or in yielding to the low or base or\nselfish. He is the Lone Man there. Does this make all the stronger His\nsympathy with us in our upper reach out of such things? Surely it does.\nThe exception makes it stand out more sharply that our Lord Jesus felt our\nfeelings. Wherever you are, however tight the corner, or narrow the road,\nor lonely the way, or keen the suffering, you can always stop and say: \"He\nwas here. He was here _first_, and _most_. He understands.\" As you kneel\nand look up, you can remember that there's a Man on the throne, a\nfellow-man, with a human heart like mine, and like yours. He understands.\nHe feels. With utmost reverence let it be said, there's more of God since\nour Lord Jesus went back. Human experience has been taken up into the\nperson of God.\n\nAnd let me remind you again, that the \"Follow Me\" here will mean nothing\nless than fellowship in the sufferings of our fellows, fellowship to the\npoint of radically affecting our lives. Sympathy will go deeper than a\nsense of pity for those less fortunate, and a giving to them a warm hand\nand a good lift up. The poor woman, living in a slum district, being\nvisited by a mission visitor, spoke for the universal human heart when she\nsaid earnestly, \"We don't want _things_; we want _love_.\" As we get up\nclose to our Lord Jesus there will come the indwelling in us of the spirit\nthat controlled Him. We will see through His eyes, we will feel with His\nheart, our hands will reach out to grasp other human hands with the\nimpulse of His touch upon them. We shall know the exquisite pain of real\nsympathy with men in need, and the great joy of sharing and making lighter\ntheir load.\n\n\n\nWhen You Don't Have To.\n\n\nThe second outward trait of our Lord Jesus' character was _sacrifice_.\nThis is not something different from what has been said; it is only going\na step further, indeed going the last step that He could go, in both His\nsympathy with men and His obedience to His Father. It helps to remember\nwhat sacrifice means; not suffering merely, though it includes suffering;\nnot privation simply, though it may include this, too. There is much\nsuffering and privation where there is no sacrifice. Sacrifice means doing\nsomething to help some one else when it takes some of your life-blood, and\nwhen you don't have to, except the have-to of love.\n\nSacrifice was so woven into the very fabric of Jesus' life that wherever\nyou cut in some of the red threads stick out. It was the never-absent\nundertone of His life, from earliest years until the tragic close. But the\nundertone rose higher and grew stronger until at the last it became the\ndominant, the only tone to be heard. He gave His life out on the cross\nthat so men might be saved from the terrible result of their sin, when He\ndidn't have to, except the have-to of His great heart.\n\nI have spoken of sacrifice as one of the two outward, manward traits of\nHis character. But the truth is His Calvary sacrifice faced three ways:\nupward, inward and outward. It faced toward the Father, for it was\ncarrying out the Father's plan, and that lets us see not only the Father's\nlove, but His estimate, as the world's administrator of justice, of the\nhorribleness of the sin which He was so freely forgiving.[15] It faced in\ntoward Himself, for it was the purity and perfection of the life poured\nout that gave the peculiar meaning to His death, and it was His\nsympathetic love that led Him up that steep hill. It faced outward, for\nthe love of it was meant to break men's hearts and bend their stubborn\nwills, and so it did and has.\n\nHis sympathy--love suffering--came to have a new meaning as He went to the\nlast extreme in His suffering. Sympathy is sometimes spoken of as putting\nyourself in the other's place so as to help him better. Our Lord Jesus did\nthis. He did it as none other did, or could. He actually put Himself in\nour place on the cross. He experienced what would have come to us had He\nnot taken our place. He suffered the suffering that belongs to us because\nof our sin. He felt the feelings that came through sin working out to its\nbitter end. Indeed He went beyond our own feelings here. For because He\nconsented to suffer as a guilty sinner, we, who trust His precious blood,\nare spared that awful experience.\n\nCalvary was sympathy to the extreme of sacrifice. But both words,\n\"sympathy\" and \"sacrifice,\" get new depths of meaning at Calvary. This red\nshuttle thread of sacrifice will appear again and again in the fabric\nwhich His \"Follow Me\" weaves out for us. What a character He calls us to!\nWhat strength of friendship to insist on our coming up close to Himself!\nIs it possible? Surely not. He is so far beyond us. Yet there is a way,\nonly one, the way of the dependent life, depending on Him to reproduce His\nown likeness in us. And our giving Him a free hand in doing it.\n\nThere is one word that could be used to cover all of this, if we only\nknew its full, rich, sweet meaning. That is the little understood, the\nmuch misunderstood, much belittled-in-use word, \"love.\" All that has been\nsaid of the character of our Lord Jesus can be found inside that\nfour-lettered word. Each trait spoken of is but a fresh spelling of love,\nsome one side of it. Love planned the dependent life, and only love can\nlive it truly. Love longs to please love, regardless of any sacrifice\ninvolved. Obedience is the active rhythm of love on the street of life.\nPurity is the inner heart of love; and the fully rounded character is the\nmaturity of love. Sympathy is the heart of love beating in perfect rhythm\nwith your own, and sacrifice is love giving its very life gladly out to\nsave yours. Some day we shall know how much is meant by the sentence, \"God\nis love.\"\n\nA little child of a Christian home came one day to his mother, asking what\nit meant to \"believe on the Lord Jesus.\" She thought a moment how to make\nthe answer simple to the child, and then said, \"It means thinking about\nHim, and loving Him.\" Sometime after, the little fellow was noticed\nsitting very quietly, apparently much absorbed in thought, and his mother\nsaid, \"What are you doing, my son?\" With child-like simplicity he said in\na quiet tone, \"I'm believing on the Lord Jesus.\" And a warm flush of\nfeeling came to the mother's heart as she realized the practical tender\nmeaning to her son, of the word \"believing.\"\n\nMay we be great enough to be as little children while I adapt that\nmother's language here: Following our Lord Jesus is thinking about Him and\nloving Him. As we come to know the meaning of love we shall find that\nfollowing is loving. The \"Follow Me\" life is the love life. But we must\nlearn the meaning of love before that sentence will grip us.\n\nThe closer we follow Him the closer we will come to knowing what love is.\nThe nearer we get to Him the nearer we get to its meaning. We will know it\nas we know Him. When we come into His presence, face to face, its simple\nfull meaning will flash upon us with a great simple surprise.\n\nLet us follow on to know it, that we may know Him. Let us live it and so\nwe shall live Him. And in so living we shall know it and Him; we shall\nknow love, and Jesus, and God.\n\n\n\n\nThe Long, Rough Road He Trod\n\n\n\nThe Book's Story.\n\n\nIt wasn't always a rough road, of course. But as you look at it from end\nto end, the roughness of it is what takes your eye most, and takes great\nhold of your heart. The smooth places here and there make you feel that it\nwas a rough road. And yet, rough though it really was, the roughness was\neased by the love in the heart of the Man that trod it; though not eased\nfor the soles of His feet, nor for hands and face. For there was thorny\nroughness at the sides as He pushed through, as well as steep roughness\nunder foot.\n\nAnd it may not seem so long at first. But the longer you look, the sharper\nyour eyes get to see how great was the distance He had to come, from where\nHe was, down to where we were.\n\nLet me take a little sea room, and go back a bit so we can see the full\nlength, and the real roughness, of the road He came. And lest some of you\nmay think that the telling of the first part of it has the sound of a\nfairy tale, let me tell you that it is simply the story of what actually\ntook place, as told in the pages of this old Book of God. It will be a\nhelp if you will keep your copy of the Bible at hand, and turn\nthoughtfully to its pages now and then as we talk.\n\nThere is a rare simplicity in the way in which the story of the Bible is\ntold. And it helps to remember that the Bible is never concerned with\nchronology, nor with scientific process but only with giving pictures of\nmoral or spiritual conditions among men as seen from above. And chiefly it\nis concerned with giving a picture of God, in His power and patience and\ngentleness, and in His great justice and right in dealing with everybody.\nYet the picture and the language never clash with the facts of nature and\nof life as dug out by student or scientist.\n\nIt is a great help in talking about these things of God, and of human\nlife, not to have any theories to fit and press things into, but simply to\ntake the Book's story, and to tell it over again in the language of our\ngeneration. It simplifies things quite a bit not to try to fit God into\nyour philosophy, but to accept His own story of life. It not only greatly\nsimplifies one's outlook, it gives you such sure footing, such steadiness.\nAny other footing may go out from under your feet any time. But the old\nBook of God \"standeth sure,\" never more sure than to-day when it was never\nmore riddled at, and mined under. But neither bullets nor mining have\naffected the Book itself. The only harm has been in the kick-back of the\nfiring, upon those standing close by.\n\nI am frank to confess my own ignorance of the great truths we are talking\nover here, save for the Bible itself, and the response to it within my own\nspirit, and the further response to it in human life all over the earth\nto-day West and East. Human life is a faithful mirror, accurately\nreflecting to-day just the conditions found in this old Book. No book so\nfaithfully and accurately describes the workings and feelings of the human\nmind and heart of to-day in our western world, and in all the world, as\nthis Book, written so long ago in the language of the East. Its finger\nstill gives accurately the pulse beat of the race. And it helps, too, to\ntell the story in the simple way in which this Book itself does, as a\nstory.\n\n\n\nGod on a Wooing Errand.\n\n\nGod and man used to live together in a garden. It was a most wonderful\ngarden, full of trees and flowers and fruit, of singing birds with rare\nfeathers and songs, of beasts that had never yet learned fear, nor to make\nothers feel it, and a beautiful river of living water. The name given it\nindicates that it was a most delightful spot.[16] God and man used to live\ntogether in this garden. They talked and walked and worked together. Man\nhelped God in putting the finishing touches on His work of creation. It\nwas the first school, with God Himself as teacher.[17] God and man used to\nhave a trysting time under the trees in the twilight. But one evening when\nGod came for the usual bit of fellowship the man was not there. God was\nthere.[18] He had not gone away, and He has never gone away. Man had gone\naway, and God was left lonely standing under the tree of life.\n\nA friend, in whose home we were, told of her little daughter's remark one\nday. The mother had been teaching her that there is only one God. The\nchild seemed surprised and on being told again, said in her childlike\nsimplicity, \"I think He must be very lonesome.\" Well, the child was right\nin the word used. God is lonesome, though for an utterly different reason\nthan was in the child's mind. God was lonesome that day, left standing\nalone under the trees of the garden. He is lonesome for fellowship with\nevery one who stays away from Himself. That homely human word may well\nexpress to us the longing of His heart.\n\nMan went away from God that day, then he wandered farther away, then he\nlost his way back, then he didn't want to come back. And away from God his\nideas about God got badly confused. His eyes grew blind to God's pleading\nface, his ears dull and then deaf to God's voice. His will got badly\nwarped and bent out of shape morally, and his life sadly hurt by the sin\nhe had let in.[19]\n\nAnd all this was very hard on God.[20] It _grieved_ Him at His heart. He\nsent many messengers, one after another, through long years, but they were\ntreated as badly as they could be.[21] And at last God said to Himself,\n\"What more can I do? This is what I will do. I'll go down Myself and live\namong them, and woo them back Myself.\" And so it was done. One day He\nwrapped about Himself the garb of our humanity, and came in amongst us as\none of ourselves.[22] And He became known amongst us as Jesus. He had\nspoken the world into being; now, in John's simple homely language, He\npitched His tent amongst our tents as our near neighbour and kinsman.[23]\nOur Lord Jesus was the face of God looking into ours, the voice of God\nspeaking into the ears of our hearts, the hand of God reached down to make\na way back and then lead us along the way back again, the heart of God\ncoming in touch to warm ours and make us willing to go back.\n\nIt was a long road He came, as long as the distance we had gone away from\nHim. And no measuring stick has yet been whittled out that can tell that\ndistance. We want to look a bit at the last lap of the road, the\nearth-lap. It runs from the Bethlehem plain where He came in, to the\nOlivet hilltop where He slipped away again up and back, for a time, until\nthings are ready for the next step in His plan.\n\n\n\nThe Rough Places.\n\n\nThe bit of earth-road began to get pretty rough before He had quite gotten\nhere. The pure gentle virgin-mother was under cruelly hurting suspicion on\nthe point about which a woman is properly most sensitive, and that too by\nthe one who was nearest to her. I've wondered why Joseph, too, was not\ntold of the plan of God when Mary was, and so she be spared this sore\nsuspicion. I think it was because he simply _could_ not have taken it in\nbeforehand, though he rose so nobly when he was told. Her experience was\nunavoidable, humanly speaking.\n\nThat hastily improvised cradle was in rather a rough spot for both mother\nand babe. The hasty fleeing for several days and nights to Egypt, with\nthose heart-rending cries of the grief-stricken mothers of Bethlehem\nhaunting their ears, the cautious return, and then apparently the change\nof plans from a home in historic Bethlehem to the much less favoured\nvillage of Nazareth,--it was all a pretty rough beginning on a very rough\nroad. It was a sort of prophetic beginning. There proved to be\nblood-shedding at both ends, and each time innocent blood, too.\n\nThe word Nazareth has become a high fence hiding from view thirty of the\nthirty-three years. Was this the dead-level, monotonous stretch of the\nroad, from the time of the early teens on to the full maturity of thirty?\nYet it proved later to have a dangerously rough place on the precipice\nside of the town. It seems rather clear that Joseph and Mary would have\nmuch preferred some other place, their own family town, cultured\nBethlehem, for rearing this child committed to their care. But the serious\ndanger involved decided the choice of the less desirable town for their\nhome.[24]\n\nBut the roughest part began when our Lord Jesus turned His feet from the\nshaded seclusion of Nazareth, and turned into the open road. At once came\nthe Wilderness, the place of terrific temptation, and of intense spirit\nconflict. The fact of temptation was intensified by the length of it.\nForty long days the lone struggle lasted. The time test is the hardest\ntest. The greatest strength is the strength that wears, doesn't wear out.\nThat Wilderness had stood for sin's worst scar on the earth's surface.\nSince then it has stood for the most terrific and lengthened-out\nsiege-attack by the Evil One upon a human being. Satan himself came and\nrallied all the power of cunning and persistence at his command. He did\nhis damnable worst and best.\n\nIn an art gallery at Moscow is a painting by a Russian artist of \"Christ\nin the Wilderness,\" which reverently and with simple dramatic power brings\nto you the intense humanity of our Lord, and how tremendously real to Him\nthe temptation was. This helps to intensify to us the meaning of the\nWilderness. It stands for victory, by a man, in the power of the Spirit,\nover the worst temptation that can come.\n\nThen follows a long stretch of rough road with certain places sharply\nmarked out to our eyes. The rejection by the Jewish leaders began at once.\nIt ran through three stages, the silent contemptuous rejection, the active\naggressive rejection, then the hardened, murderous rejection running up to\nthe terrible climax of the cross.\n\nThe contemptuous rejection of the Baptist's claim for his Master, by the\nofficial commission sent down to inquire,[25] was followed by the more\naggressive, as they began to realize the power of this man they had to\ndeal with. John's imprisonment revealed an intensifying danger, and the\nneed of withdrawing to some less dangerous place.\n\nOur Lord's change to Galilee, and to preaching and working among the\nmasses, was followed by a persistent campaign on the part of the\nSoutherners of nagging, harrying warfare against Him throughout Galilee.\nIt grew in bitterness and intensity, with John's death as a further\nturning point to yet intenser bitterness. The visits to Jerusalem were\naccompanied by fiercer attacks, venomous discussions, and frenzied\nattempts at personal violence. This grew into the third stage of\nrejection, the cool, hardened plotting of His death. The last weeks\nthings head up at a tremendous rate; our Lord appears to be the one calm,\nsteady man, even in His terrific denunciation of them, held even and\nsteady in the grip of a clear, strong purpose, as He pushed His way\nunwaveringly onward. Then came the terrible climax,--the cross. The worst\nvenomous spittle of the serpent's poison sac spat out there. It was the\nclimax of hate, and the climax of His unspeakable love.\n\n\n\nWhen Your Heart's Tuned to the Music.\n\n\nSurely it was a long, rough road. Its length was not measured by miles,\nnor years, but by the experiences of this Lone Man. So measured it becomes\nthe longest road ever trod, from purity's heights to sin's depths; from\nlove's mountain top to hate's deepest gulf. It makes a new record for\nroughness. For no one has ever suffered what our Lord Jesus did; and no\none's suffering ever had the value and meaning for another that His had\nand has for all men and for us. Not one of us to-day realizes how He\nsuffered, nor the intensity of meaning that suffering actually has for all\nthe race, and for those of us who accept it for ourselves.\n\nIt was a rough, long road, and He knew ahead that it would be. He saw\ndimly ahead, then more sharply outlined as He drew on, those crossed logs\nin the road, growing bigger and darker and more forbidding as He pushed\non. But He could not be stopped by that, for He was thinking about us,\nand about His Father. He pushed steadily on, past crossed logs all\novergrown and tangled with thorn bushes and poison ivy vines, bearing the\nmarks of logs and thorns and poison ivy, but He went through to the end of\nthe road, He reached His world; He reached _our hearts_. And now He is\nlonging to reach through our hearts to the hearts of the others.\n\n    \"But none of the ransomed ever knew\n        How deep were the waters crossed;\n    Nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through,\n        'Ere He found His sheep that were lost.\n\n    'Lord, whence are those blood-drops all the way\n        That mark out the mountain's track?'\n    'They were shed for one who had gone astray\n        Ere the Shepherd could bring him back.'\n\n    But all through the mountains, thunder-riven,\n        And up from the rocky steep,\n    There arose a glad cry to the gate of heaven,\n        'Rejoice! I have found my sheep.'\"[26]\n\nBut there was something more on that road. Do you know how the wind blows\nthrough the trees on the steep mountain side, and will make music in your\nheart, _if your heart is tuned to its music_, even while you are pushing\nyour way through thorny tanglewood and undergrowth? Do you know how, as\nyou go down the deep mountain ravines, with the wild rushing torrent far\nbelow, where a single misstep would mean so much, how the breeze playing\nthrough the leaves makes sweetest melody, _if your heart's tuned to it?_\n\nWell, this great Lone Man had a heart tuned for the music of this road.\nThe strong wind of His Father's love blew down through the wild mountains\ninto His face, and made sweetest music, and His ear was in tune and heard\nit. He had a tuning-fork that gave Him the true pitch for the rarest\nmusic, while His feet travelled cautiously the deep wilderness ravines,\nand boldly climbed through the thorny undergrowth of that steep hill just\noutside the city wall. Obedience is the rhythm of two wills, that blends\ntheir action into rarest harmony. Some of us need to use His\ntuning-fork,[27] so as to enjoy the music of the road.\n\n\n\nThe Pleading Call To Follow\n\n\n\nHungry for the Human Touch.\n\n\nGod hungers for the human touch. There's an inner hesitancy in saying\nthis, and in hearing it. We feel it can hardly be so, even though our\ninner hearts would wish it were so.\n\nWe know that we men hunger for the human touch, the strongest of us. And\nin our hour of sore need we know that our inner hearts look up, and wish\nwe could have a really close touch with God. Well, this is a bit of the\nimage of God in us. We were made so, like Himself. In seeing ourselves\nhere, we are getting a closer look at the heart of God. He longs for the\nhuman touch. When He made us He breathed into our nostrils the breath of\nHis own life. And this is not simply a bit of the first Genesis chapter.\nIt is a bit of every human life. There's the breath of God in every new\nlife born into the world. He gives a bit of Himself. We are not complete\ncreatively until part of Himself has come to be part of us.\n\nAnd Jesus' coming was but the same thing put in yet more intense, close,\nappealing shape to us. He came to get us in touch again after the break\nof sin. He gave His blood that we might have life again after the\nsin-break had broken off our life, and commenced to dry it up. This was an\neven closer touch. The breath of God came in Eden to breathe in our lungs.\nThe blood of His Son came on Calvary to give life-action to our hearts.\nCould there be anything to make clearer His hunger for the human touch?\n\nThe Holy Spirit's presence spells out the same thing once more. There has\nbeen every sort of thing to induce Him to go away. He has been ignored,\nleft out of all reckoning, and talked against. Yet with a patience beyond\nwhat that word means to us, He has remained creatively in every man as the\nvery breath of his life. And He comes and remains the very breath of the\nspirit life in those who yield to His pleading call.\n\nJesus was God coming after us. We had gone away. He came to woo us back\ninto close touch again. He came to the nation of Israel, that through it\nHe might reach out to all men. When He comes again it will be again to use\nIsrael as His messenger, while He Himself will be present on the earth in\na new way to woo men to Himself. When that nation's leaders rejected\nJohn's announcement, and so rejected our Lord Jesus, He began to appeal to\nindividual men, while waiting for the nation. And the work with\nindividuals was also His call to the nation.\n\nSo the chief thing He did was to call men. His presence was a call, and\nthe crowds flocked to Him wherever He went. His life of purity and\nsympathy was felt as an earnest call and responded to eagerly. His doings\nwere a very intense call. Every healed man and woman, every one set free\nof demon influence, every one of the fed multitudes, felt called to this\nman who had helped him so. His teaching was a continual call, and His\npreaching. But above all else stood out the personal call He gave men. For\nour Lord Jesus was not content to deal with the crowds simply; He dealt\nwith men one by one in intimate heart touch.\n\n\n\nCalled to Go.\n\n\nThere are a number of invitations He used in calling men. It was as though\nin His eagerness He used every sort that might go home. And yet there was\nmore than this; these invitations are like successive steps up into the\nlife He wanted them to have. He said, \"Come unto Me.\"[28] This was always\nthe first, and still remains first. It led, and it leads, into rest of\nheart and life, peace with God. He quickly followed it with \"Come ye after\nMe.\"[29] They must come to Him before they could come after Him. This was\nfound to mean discipleship, learning the road. He would \"make\" them like\nHimself in going after others. He said, \"take My yoke upon you.\"[30]This\nmeant a bending down to get into the yoke, a surrender of will and heart\nto Himself, and then partnership, fellowship side-by-side with Himself.\n\nThen He spoke another word to the innermost circle, on the night in which\nHe was betrayed. He had a long talk that evening with the eleven around\nthe supper table, and walking down to the grove of olives at the Brook of\nthe Cedars.[31] Several times that evening He used this new word, \"abide,\"\n\"abide in Me.\" That means staying with Him, not leaving, living\ncontinuously with Him. It means a continued separation from anything that\nwould separate from Him. And then it means a fulness of life coming from\nHimself into us as we draw all our life from Himself, a rich ripeness, a\nrounded maturity, a depth of life, and these always becoming\nmore,--richer, rounder, deeper.\n\nThen after the awful days of the cross were past, on the evening of the\nresurrection day, in the upper room with ten of the inner disciples, He\npractically said, \"You be Myself\"; \"as the Father sent Me, even so send I\nyou\"[32]; \"You be I.\" I wonder if any one of us has ever been taken or\nmistaken for the Lord Jesus. We would never know it, of course. But He\nmeant it to be so.\n\nA Scottish lady missionary in India tells of a Bible class of girls which\nshe had. She was teaching them about the life and character of the\nLord Jesus. One day a new girl came in, fresh from the heathenism in\nwhich she grew up, knowing nothing of the Gospel. She listened, and then\nbecame quite intense and excited in her childish way, as she heard them\ntalking about some One, how good He was, how gentle, how He was always\nteaching and helping the people around Him. At last she could restrain her\neagerness no longer, but blurted out, \"I know that man; he lives near us.\"\nIt was found that she did not know about Christ, but supposed they were\nspeaking of a very earnest native Christian man living in her\nneighbourhood. She had mistaken her neighbour for Jesus. How glad that man\nmust have been if he ever knew. This was a part of our Lord's plan.\n\nAnd at the very end, these successive invitations took the shape of a\ncommand, which was both a permission and an order,--\"Go ye.\"[33] Men who\nhad taken to heart, one after another, these invitations were ready for\nthe command. They would be eager for it. The invitations were the Master's\npreparation for the command. He could trust such men to go, and to keep\nsteady and true as they went, in the power He gave them. There is one word\nthat you find in all these invitations--\"Me.\" They all centre about the\nLord Jesus. He is the centre of gravity drawing every one, in ever growing\nnearness and meaning, to Himself. It is only when we have been drawn into\nclosest touch with Him that we are qualified to \"go\" to others. It's only\nHimself in us, only as much of Himself as is in us, that will be helpful\nto any one else, or will make any one else willing to break with his old\nway. He is the only magnet to draw men away from the old life up to\nHimself.\n\n\n\n\"Follow Me.\"\n\n\nBut there's one other invitation which belongs in this list. It proves to\nbe the greatest of them all, because you come to find it includes all\nthese others. It's His \"Follow Me.\" It seems at first glance to be the\nsame as that \"Come after Me.\" But it is the word He repeated again and\nagain, under different circumstances, with added explanations, to the same\nmen, until you feel that He meant it to stand out as the great invitation\nto His disciples. It seems to mean different things at different times.\nThat is to say, it grew in its significance. It came to mean more than it\nhad seemed to.\n\nPeter is a good illustration here. The word really came to him five times,\nwith a different, an added, meaning each time. His first following meant\nacquaintance.[34] John the Herald had sent his disciples, John and Andrew,\nalong after Jesus as He was walking one day on the Jordan river road. They\nfollowed Jesus to their first acquaintance in a two hours' talk, which\nquite satisfied their hearts as to who He was. John never forgot that\nfirst following. Every detail of it stands out in his memory when long\nyears after he began to write his story of the Master. Andrew went at once\nto hunt up Peter, and brought him face-to-face with his newly found Friend\nand Master. That interview settled things for Peter. Andrew's following\nnow included his. Following meant the beginning of the personal friendship\nwhich was to mean so much for both of them.\n\nIt was about a year after, that \"Follow Me\" had a new meaning to Peter and\nsome others.[35] The invitation was an illustrated one this time,\nillustrated by a living picture of just what it meant. It was one morning\nby the Lake of Galilee. Peter and his partners had had a poor night's\nfishing, and were out on shore washing their nets. The Master had come\nalong, with a great crowd pressing in to get closer and hear better. There\nwas danger of the crowd pushing the Master into the water. The Master\nborrowed Peter's boat for a pulpit. Peter sat facing the crowd while the\nMaster talked to them.\n\nWas that the first time the spell of a crowd began to get its subtle\nheart-hold on Peter as he looked into their hungry eyes? Who can withstand\nthe great appeal of the crowd's eyes? Not our Lord, nor any that have\ncaught His spirit. Then the great draught of fishes, after the fishless\nnight, made Peter feel the Master's power. Fishes would make him feel it,\nbeing a fisherman, as nothing else would. The sense of Jesus' power, and\nwith it a sense of purity--interesting how the power made him feel the\npurity--this brought him to his knees at our Lord's feet with the\nconfession of his own sinfulness.\n\nPeter was greatly moved that morning, greatly shaken. A new experience of\ntremendous power had come to him. And out of it came a new life, a radical\nchange as he left the old occupation, fishing, boats, father, means of\nlivelihood, and entered upon the new life. \"Follow Me\" meant a radical\nchange of life, constant companionship with Jesus, sharing His life, going\nto school, getting ready for leadership and service; yes, and for\nsuffering too. He entered the Master's itinerant training school that\nmorning. A man needs a sight of the Lord Jesus' power, a _feel_ of it,\nbefore he is fit to serve, or even to go to school to get ready for\nservice.\n\nIt was some months after this that another meaning grew into the words\n\"Follow Me,\" and grew out of them. The words are not spoken this time, but\nacted. Out of the group of disciples that He had gathered about Him our\nLord prayerfully chose out Peter with the others to be sent out as His\nmessenger to others.[36]Part of the schooling was over; now a new part, a\nnew term of school, was to begin. He gave them a special talk that\nmorning, and sent them out to teach and heal and do for the crowds what\nHe had been doing.\n\nHe called them Apostles, Sent-ones, Missionaries. \"Follow Me\" now meant\ngoing to others. It meant more--_power_, power to do for men all the\nMaster Himself had done. First, power felt that early morning by the lake,\nnow power given. That was a great advance in training. Power had to be\nfelt before it could be given, and has to be felt before it can be used.\nOnly as the power takes hold of our inner hearts to the feeling point,\nwill it ever take hold of others. And no life is changed through our\nservice till power takes hold of us to _the feeling point_.\n\n\n\nThe Deeper Meaning.\n\n\nBut there was a special session of the \"Follow Me\" school one day, a very\nserious session.[37]They had to be shown the red threads in the weave of\nthe word. The words had to be held under the knife, so they could look\ninto the cut, and see the deeper meaning. \"Follow Me\" had to take deeper\nhold of them yet, if His power was to get the deeper hold of them, and, by\nand by, get hold of the needy crowds. The very setting of the words gives\nthe new meaning to them. John had felt the keen edge of Herod's axe blade,\nand was now in the upper presence. They were up in the far northern part\nbecause of the growing danger threatening Him by the leaders.\n\nIt is the turning point where our Lord Jesus begins to tell them that He\nwas to suffer. Their ears _could_ not take in the words. Their dazed eyes\nshow that they think they could not have heard aright,--He to _suffer!_\nWhat could this mean? They hadn't figured on this when they left the nets\nand boats to follow. There had been a rosy glamour filling impulsive\nPeter's self-confident sky. Now this black storm cloud! Then to Peter's\nfoolhardy daring came words spoken with a new intense quietness that made\nthe words quiver: \"If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself\nand take up his cross daily and 'Follow Me.'\"[38]\n\nThis was startling to a terrific degree. Here was a new, strange,\nperplexing combination--\"deny himself,\" and \"cross,\" coupled with His\n\"Follow Me.\" What could He mean? This was surely some of His intensely\nfigurative language again, they think. Yes, it surely was; and it stood\nfor a yet intenser experience. \"Follow Me\" means sacrifice. It means a\ngoing down as well as a going up. And it proves to mean that one can go up\nin power and service, only as far as he has gone down in the obedience\nthat includes sacrifice. Did Peter take in the meaning that day? I think\nnot. Actions speak louder than words.\n\nThat betrayal night a few short months after, when the actual cross was\nalmost in actual sight, he \"followed Him afar off.\"[39] Without knowing\nit, that was as far as he had ever really followed thus far. He wanted to\nkeep as \"far off\" from that cross as possible. He always had. He baulked\nat its first mention, baulked tremendously. Yet he \"followed.\" Poor Peter!\nhe was in a terrible strait betwixt two, this wondrous Master whom he\nreally loved, and this threatening cross of nails and thongs and thorns.\nIt was a stiff struggle between heart and flesh; between the longing of\nhis love and the shrinking from pain and hardship and shame. And Peter's\nkinsfolk are still having the same struggle. A great many stop here. This\nis going _too_ far! They prefer staying by the easier \"Follow Me's,\" and\nforgetting this one. Yes, and go on living powerless lives, and engaging\nin powerless service, when the crowds were never so needy.\n\nPeter didn't follow this time. The road was too rough. He stumbled and\nfell badly. Badly? Still no worse than many others. When he got up he was\nstill facing the same way. You can always tell a man's mettle by the way\nhe faces as he gets up after a bad fall.\n\nSix months or so after there came another \"Follow Me,\" to Peter. No, it\nwasn't another; it was the same one, the one he hadn't accepted. Peter was\nto have another opportunity at the same place where he fell so badly. How\npatient our Lord Jesus was--and is.\n\nIt was one morning just after breakfast--a rare breakfast--on the edge of\nthe lake, after as poor a night's fishing as that other time.[40] Again\nthe touch of power revealed the Master's presence. Again Peter had a\nspecial word with the Master while the others are hauling in the fish. Now\nbreakfast's over and the seven are grouped about the One, listening. The\nLord's quiet skilled hand touches the heart meaning of \"Follow Me.\" Its\nreal meaning is a love meaning. Do you love? Then \"Follow Me.\" Then you\n_must_ follow, your love draws you after, even though the path be rough\nand broken. This is the same \"Follow Me\" that Peter baulked at so badly\nmonths before. Its meaning had not changed. It would mean a death, Peter\nis plainly told. But now Peter baulks no longer. The Master's great love\nhad taught Him how really to love. And now not even a cross for himself\nwould or could keep him from following close up to such a Master.\n\nHere is the meaning of \"Follow Me\" as it worked out in Peter's\nexperience--acquaintance, a new life, schooling, service, a sight of\nsacrifice, and a baulking, then--a sight of Jesus on the cross, and then a\nwillingness to go on even though it meant the sorest sacrifice. This is an\netching of the road Peter actually went, an etching in black and white,\nwith the black very black. Is it a picture of your road? But perhaps you\nhave never filled out the last part--still back at that baulking place. In\nthe thick of our present life, in the noise and din of the street of\nmodern life, comes as of old the quiet, clear, insistent call \"Follow Me.\"\n\n\n\nGetting in Behind.\n\n\nBut, some one says, how can we really follow this Lone Man, our Lord Jesus\nChrist? He was so pure in His life, stainless in motive, and unstained in\ncharacter. And we--well, the nearer we get to Him the more instinctively\nwe find Peter's lakeshore cry starting up within, \"I am a sinful man.\" His\nvery presence makes us feel the sin, the sin-instinct, the old selfish\nsomething within. How can we really follow? And the answer that comes is a\nreal answer. It answers the inner heart-cry.\n\nIt is this: we begin where He ended. The cross was the end of His life. It\nmust be the beginning of ours. It was the climax of His obedience. All the\nlines of His life come together at the cross. It is the beginning for us.\nAll the lines of our lives, the lines of purity, of character, of service,\nof power, run back to the one starting point. And we come to find--some of\nus pretty slowly--that it is only the lines that do start there that lead\nto anything worth while. The starting point for the true life, and for\nreal service is very clear. And if any of us have made a false start, it\nwill be a tremendous saving to drop things and go back and get the true\nstart. \"The blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth from all sin\"--this is the\nonly point from which to start the \"Follow Me\" life. \"Follow Me\" does not\nmean imitation. It means reincarnation. It's some One coming to re-live\nHis life in us. He died that His life might be loosed out to be relived in\nus.\n\nI have already spoken of this as being a call to friendship. All the rest\nthat comes is meant to be what naturally grows out of this friendship.\nPeter never forgot his last \"Follow Me\" call. \"Lovest thou Me?\" Then thou\nmayest follow. This greatly sweetens all the rest. It's all for Him!--our\nfriend. Out of this personal relation comes service, power in service,\nsuffering because of opposition to Him whom we serve, and joy because we\nmay suffer on His account.[41]\n\nMatthew became His friend that day down at the little customs-shed at the\nCapernaum water edge. And out of that friendship grew our first gospel.\nJohn lived very close, and out of his intimacy came the gospel that\nreveals to us most the inner heart of our Lord, and His own intimacy of\nrelation with the Father. And out of that friendship came, too, not only\nJohn's wonderful little \"abiding\" epistle,[42] but the Revelation book,\nwhich gives us an inkling of the coming in of the Kingdom time that lies\nso near to our Lord's heart. Out of such intimacy of touch grew Stephen's\nringing address before the Jewish council, and--his stormy, stony exit,\nout and up into his Master's presence.\n\nAnd time would fail me to tell of those in every corner of the earth, and\nevery generation since our Lord was here, who have served and suffered\nbecause they loved Him and followed. Hidden away in the rocks and caves of\nFrance from the fires of persecution, the Huguenots sang their favourite\nhymn:\n\n    \"I have a friend so precious,\n      So very dear to me,\n    He loves me with such tender love,\n      He loves so faithfully.\n\n    I could not live apart from Him,\n      I love to feel Him nigh,\n    And so we dwell together,\n      My Lord and I.\"\n\nWhen I was in China a year ago, my heart caught some of the distant echoes\nof that sort of singing, by Chinese Christians, in the midst of the fiery\npersecutions of the Boxer time. And I heard the same sad, glad undertone\nlast year out in Corea, in the homes we visited, whose loved ones were\nbehind prison bars for their Friend's sake.\n\nOne of the latest chapters of this friendship's outcome is only just\nclosed in the story of that quiet, young friend of the Lord Jesus, William\nWhiting Borden, who sat down a little while ago, and so placed the wealth\nleft him that the world might learn of his Friend, and then went out and\nlaid down his life in Egypt in this same passion of friendship. So the\nearth's sod in every corner has known the fertilizing of such friendship\nblood, and shall some day know a wondrous harvest under our great Friend's\nown gleaning.\n\nAnd this is why He asks us to follow. He needs our help. Our Lord Jesus\ngave His precious life blood to redeem the world, to set it free from its\nsin-slavery. But there are two parts to that redemption, His and ours.\nThese two parts are strikingly brought out by a single word in the\nbeginning of the book of Acts,[43] the word \"began.\" Luke says that what\nhe has been writing in his Gospel of the life and death of Jesus was only\na _beginning_. This was what \"He _began_ both to do and to teach.\" It is\nusually explained that what our Lord Jesus began in the Gospels, the Holy\nSpirit continued to _do_ in the Acts, and to _teach_ in the Epistles. And\nthis is no doubt true. But there is still more here. The Holy Spirit\ncontinued and continues through men what He began through Jesus. There is\na second part to the work of redemption, our part, the Holy Spirit working\nthrough us. There had to be a first part; that was the great part. There\ncould be no second without a first. That first part was done when our Lord\nJesus was hurt to death for us. That is the great first part. Yet in doing\nthat He had but begun something. He touched Palestine. We are to cover the\nearth. He touched one nation; we are to go to all nations. We are to\ncontinue what He began. The work of redemption was finished on the cross\nso far as He was concerned; but not yet finished so far as its being taken\nto \"all the world\" was concerned. He needs us. This is why He asks us to\nfollow. He needs our co-operation.\n\nThe second great factor in carrying out what He began is--how shall I put\nit? Shall I say, men and the Holy Spirit? You say, \"No, change that, say\nthe Holy Spirit and men. Put the Spirit first.\" Well, the order of these\ntwo depends on where you are standing. If you are standing at the Father's\nright hand, you say \"the Holy Spirit and men.\" For the power is all in the\nHoly Spirit. He is the power. There can be nothing done without Him.\nWhatever is done in which He is not dominant amounts to nothing. How I\nwish we men might have that tremendous fact grip us in these days when the\nwhole emphasis is on organization.\n\nBut, very reverently let me say this, and I say it thus plainly that we\nmay know how much our Lord Jesus is depending on us, how really He needs\nus,--this, that since we are on the earth, in the place of human action,\nwhere the fighting is to be done, it is accurate to say with utmost\nreverence, \"_men_ and the Holy Spirit.\" For mark keenly, the initiative is\nin human hands. God's action has always waited on human action. The power\nis only in the Holy Spirit. The most astute and strong leadership amounts\nto nothing without Him flooding it with His presence. But the power needs\na channel. The Spirit needs men strongly pliant to His will. The great\nworld-plan waits, and always has waited, for willing men. And so our great\nFriend asks us to follow because He really needs us in His plan.\n\nHave you ever noticed the picture in the word \"follow\"? You remember that\nthe earliest language was picture language. And it is a great help\nsometimes to dig down under a word and get the picture. Here, it is a man\nstanding on a roadway, earnestly beckoning, and pointing to the road he is\nin. The Old Testament word means literally \"same road.\" The very word the\nMaster Himself used means \"in behind.\"\n\nTo-night this wondrous Lord Jesus stands just ahead. His face still shows\nwhere the thorns cut and the thongs tore. But there is a marvellous\ntenderness and pleading in those great patient eyes. His hand is reached\nout beckoning, and you cannot miss the hole in the palm of it. The hand\npoints to the road He trod for us. And His voice calls pleadingly, \"Take\nthis same road; get in behind. I need your help with My world.\"\n\n\n\nSelling All.\n\n\nAnd yet--and yet----. Do you remember one time our Lord turned to the\ncrowds that were following and told them it would be better to count up\nthe cost before deciding to be His disciples?[44] He feared if they didn't\nthere would be \"mocking\" by outsiders because His followers' lives didn't\nsquare with their profession. His fear seems to have been well founded.\nThere seems to be quite a bit of that sort of mocking. It's better to\ncount the cost, to know what following really means. A Salvation Army\nofficer in Calcutta tells about a young handsome Hindu of an aristocratic\nfamily. One day he came in, drew out a New Testament, and asked the\nmeaning of the words, \"sell whatsoever thou hast,\" in the story of the\nrich young ruler.[45] The Salvationist told him it meant that if a man's\npossessions stood in the way of his becoming a Christian he must be\nwilling, if need be, to dispose of them for the needy. To his surprise the\nyoung man quietly said, \"I fear you don't understand.\"\n\n\"Do you want to be a Christian?\"\n\n\"Yes, but I'm not willing to sell all that I possess.\"\n\nAfter a little more talk the young Indian left. Sometime after he appeared\nat one of the Salvation Army meetings, and when the opportunity was given\nfor those who would accept Christ to kneel at the altar, at once he\nstarted forward. But instantly a storm broke out in the crowded meeting. A\ngroup of men rushed forward, shouting angrily, seized the young man and\nbore him bodily out while the crowd watched in terror. A few weeks later\nthe young man turned up again, asking to be taken in and quietly saying,\n\"I have begun to sell all.\"\n\nThen his story came out. A Bible had come into his hands; the character\nand call of the Lord Jesus made a great appeal to him. He was haunted by\nthe words, \"sell whatsoever thou hast.\" He felt he knew what it meant for\nhim. His family heard of his interest in Christianity. They belonged to\nthe highest class, were wealthy and officially connected with the heathen\ntemple-worship. They did their best to dissuade him, then finding that\nuseless, they kept watch, and had him forcibly taken from the meeting\nwhere he was about to openly confess Christ. The entreaties of his father\nand mother shook him greatly but failed to change his decision. He had\nbeen imprisoned, chained hand and foot, and scantily fed, but all to no\npurpose. Then he managed to escape and came to the one Christian place he\nknew, the Salvation Army, and asked to be taken in.\n\nAfter about two weeks he disappeared as abruptly as he came. Then one day\nhe came back, and told his Salvation friend that he had been carried to\nBenares, their holy city, and forced to bathe in the Ganges. \"But,\" he\nsaid, \"as I stood in the water of the Ganges, I said, 'Lord Jesus, wash me\nin Thy precious blood,' and when I was forced to bow to idols, I bowed my\nsoul to the eternal Father and said, 'Thou art God alone.'\" His mother had\nimplored him on her knees not to disgrace them; his tutor, whom he loved\ndearly, and his brothers had joined the father in their plea not to bring\nsuch shame on the family. \"Well,\" the Salvationist said, \"now, you know\nthe meaning of 'sell whatsoever thou hast'\" \"Not yet,\" he said, \"but I\nhave sold nearly all.\"\n\nAgain he came back and said quietly, \"_I have sold all_.\" He appeared\ndeeply grief-stricken, and yet there was a light shining in his eye. In\nanswer to questions he said, \"I have not only ceased to be a Brahmin, I\nhave ceased to be a human being. I am not only an outcast, I am dead. I\nhave neither father, mother, brothers, nor sisters. I have been burned in\neffigy, and the ashes buried. It was not the effigy they burned; it was I.\nMy father would not recognize me now if he met me on the street, nor would\nmy mother. I am dead. I have been buried. It is the end. I have sold\nall.\"[46] He had counted the cost. Then though it meant so much, he\nfollowed. The rich young Jew to whom the words were first spoken, saw\n_things_ bigger than Jesus; the rich young Hindu saw Jesus bigger. Each\nheld to what he prized most, and let the other go. Would it not be better\nif we were to count the cost, and then _deliberately_ decide? and if it be\nto follow, then follow _all the way?_ I want to talk a little later about\nwhat it means to follow. I hope this will help us a little in our\ncalculations, in counting the cost before starting in to follow fully.\n\nAnd yet, and yet, may the vision of the Lone Man in the road, beckoning,\nflood our eyes while we count the cost, even as with the young Hindu.\n\n\n\n\nWhat Following Means\n\n\n1. A Look Ahead.\n2. The Main Road.\n3. The Valleys.\n4. The Hilltops.\n\n\n\n\n1. A Look Ahead\n\n\n\nSaltless Salt.\n\n\nThe Lord Jesus never tried to make things look easier than they are. He\nwanted you to see the road just as it is, and asked you to look at it\ncarefully. He knew this was the only right way to do. He knew that so the\nsinews would be grown in character that would stand the tests coming, and\nonly so.\n\nIt was never His plan to increase the numbers by cutting down the\ndoorsills so men could get in more easily. That was a later arrangement.\nHe was never concerned for numbers, but for right and truth. A man walking\nalone down the middle of the one true path was more to Him, immensely\nmore, than a great crowd wabbling along on the edge, half out, half in,\nneither in nor out, and so really out but not knowing it. If they were\nreally out and knew it, it would be better, for they could see more\ndistinctly the path they were not in, its straightness and attractiveness.\n\nThis sort of thing grew more marked with our Lord Jesus as the end drew\non, the tragic end. The crowds thickened about Him those last months. They\nliked good bread, and plenty of it, and healed bodies, pain gone. And He\nliked to give them these. He helped just as far as they would let Him. But\nHe wanted to give them more. He knew this other was only temporary. He was\nmore concerned about healing the spirit of its disease, and giving the\nmore abundant life. And full well He knew that only the knife could help\nmany. And the knife had to be freshly sharpened, and used with strong\ndecisive hand, if healing and life were to come.\n\nAnd men haven't changed, nor the diseases that hurt their life, nor the\nMaster, nor the tender love of His heart. But there's more than knife;\nthere's fulness of life following. He would have us get the life even\nthough it means the knife. Most times--every time, shall I say?--the life\ncomes only through the knife. Yet when the life has come, with its great\ntireless strength, and its deep breathing, and sheer delight of living,\nyou are grateful for the knife that led the way to such life.\n\nOne day our Lord entered a vigorous protest against the wrong sort of\nsalt,[47] saltless salt, the sort that seemed to be salt, and you used it\nand depended on it, and then found how unsalty it was, for the thing you\ndepended on it to preserve, had gone bad. The great need is for salty\nsalt. There still seems to be a great lot of this saltless salt in use.\nIt's labelled salt, and so it's used as salt, but it befools you. The\nsaltiness has been lost out, and the man using it wakes up to find out\nhow great is the loss, loss of what he thought he had salted, and loss of\ntime, character and time, the character of that salted with saltless salt,\nand the time spent.\n\nIt would be an immense clearing of the religious situation to-day on both\nsides of the Atlantic, if the saltless salt could be got rid of, either by\nremoving the unsaltiness in it--though that seems a hopeless task, it's so\nunsalty, and there is so much of it, and such a large proportion of it,\nand it's so well content with being just as unsalty as it is. _Or_, the\nonly other thing is put very simply and vigorously by the Lord in a short\nintense sentence, \"Cast it out.\" Out with it. And lots of it _is out_ so\nfar as preservative usefulness is concerned.\n\nAnd yet with wondrous patience He puts up with a great deal of salt that\nseems to have nearly reached the utterly saltless stage, hoping to get rid\nof the unsaltiness, and then to give it a new saltiness. For, be it keenly\nmarked, when the saltiness has quite gone out of the salt, when the\npreservative quality has quite gone out from that body of people which He\nhas placed in the world as its moral preservative,--then look out. Aye,\n\"look up,\"[48] for that's the only direction from which any help can\nrelieve the desperateness of the situation. And \"lift up your heads,\" for\nthen comes a new preservative to the rotting earth-life. But some of us\nwill smell the smell of the decay before the new salt begins to work.\n\n\n\nThe Thing in Us That Wants Things.\n\n\nIt was along toward that tragic end, when the tension was tightening up to\nthe snapping point, the bitter hatred of the leaders yet more bitter, the\ncrowds yet denser, the terms of discipleship yet more plainly put with\nloving, faithful plainness, that a characteristic incident happened.[49] A\nyoung man of gentle blood and breeding, and influential position, came\neagerly, courteously elbowing his way through the crowd that gathered\nthick about. Our Lord had just risen from where He had been sitting\nteaching, when this young man, in his eagerness, came running to Him. With\ndeep reverence of spirit he knelt down in the road, and began asking about\nthe true life, the secret of living it. Our Lord begins talking about\nbeing true in all his dealings with his fellow-men. The young man\nearnestly assured Him that he had paid great attention to this, and felt\nthat there was nothing lacking in him on this score. The utter sincerity\nand earnestness of his spirit was so clear that the Master's love was\ndrawn out to him. And He showed His love in a way characteristic of Him in\ndealing with those who want to go to the whole length of the true road.\nThat is, He talked very plainly to him. There were four things to do\nbeforehand, He said, four starting steps into this life he was so eager\nto enter. Four words tell the four steps: \"go,\" \"sell,\" \"give,\" and\n\"come.\"\n\n\"Go\" meant the decisive starting in on this way; \"sell\" meant putting\neverything into the Father's hand for His disposal as _He_ alone might\nchoose. \"Give\" meant using everything, everything you are, and have, and\ncan influence, as _He_ bids you. \"Come\" meant this new man, this decisive,\nemptied, now trusted man, trusted as a trustee, coming into a new personal\nrelation with the Lord Jesus.\n\nThe first three things were important because they revealed the man. But\n_the_ thing was that the man, this new-emptied and now God-trusted man,\nshould come into personal touch with the Lord Jesus. The things he had and\nheld on to came in between. When they no longer came in to separate, then,\nand only then, was he ready to get \"in behind\" and \"follow\" along the\n\"same road.\" For this is the friendship road. Only friends are allowed\nhere, inner friends, those who come in by that gateway. There must be the\npersonal touch. Things that stand in the way of that must be straightened\nout.\n\nIt was rather a startling answer. The young man was startled tremendously.\nThe way to come in is first to go out. The way to get is first to give.\nThe way to buy what you want is to sell what you have. That is to say, the\nway for this young man to get what he was so eager for was to get rid of\nwhat he already had. And yet it wasn't getting rid of the things the\nMaster was thinking about, but getting rid of the thing in him that\nwanted the things, getting rid of their hold upon him. Our Lord Jesus\nwanted, and wants, free men, emptied men. He wants the strength in the man\nthat the emptying and selling process gives. This is the laboratory where\nthe unsaltiness is being burned out, and the new salty saltiness being\ngenerated, put in.\n\nThis young fellow couldn't stand the test. So many can't. No, I'm getting\nthe words wrong. He wouldn't stand it; so many won't. The slavery of\n_things_ was too much. The thing in him that wanted the things was\nstronger than the thing that wanted the true life. He was too weak to make\nthat \"go\" decision. He belonged to the weakly fellowship of the saltless\nones. They are not wholly saltless, but that's the chief thing that marks\nthem. It's a long-lived fellowship, continuing to this day, with a large\nmembership in good and regular standing.\n\nI think the real trouble with this fine-grained lovable young man was in\nhis eyes, the way they looked, what they saw. It was a matter of seeing\nthings in true perspective. He didn't get a good look at the Man he asked\nhis question of. He was looking so intently at the _things_ that he\ncouldn't get the use of his eyes for a good look at the Man. This is a\nvery common eye-trouble. He was all right outward, toward his fellows, but\nhe wasn't all right upward toward the Father.\n\nAnd yet even that statement must be changed. For a man cannot be right\nwith his fellows who is not right with God. When God doesn't have the\npassion of the heart, our fellows don't have all they should properly have\nfrom us; there is a lack. The common law may be kept, the pounds and yards\nmay weigh and measure off fully what is due them from us, but the uncommon\nlaw, the love-law is not being kept. The warm spirit that should breathe\nout through all our dealings is lacking. It's been checked by the check in\nthe upper movement. Only the spirit that flows freely up, ever flows\nfreely out.\n\nThat young Indian aristocrat we spoke of elsewhere got a sight of _Jesus_.\nThat settled _things_ for him, including even such sacred things as human\nloves. This young Jewish aristocrat couldn't get his eyes off of the\nthings. So many \"thing\"-slaves there are, so much \"thing\"-slavery. If only\nthere were the sight of _His_ face! His _face_; torn? yes; scarred? yes\nagain, but oh, the strength and light and love in it!\n\nDo you remember that other young Jewish, university-trained aristocrat? He\ngot a look, one good long look-in-the-face look of _that face_, one day,\non the road up to the northern Syrian capital. The light of it flooded his\nface, and strangely affected him. He said \"when I could not _see_ for the\nglory of that light.\"[50] He couldn't see things for Him. The sight of Him\nblurred out the things. The great need to-day is for a sight of _Him_.\nLord Jesus, if Thou wouldst show us Thy \"hands and feet\" again, and torn\nface, even as in the upper room that resurrection evening,[51] for that's\nwhat we are needing. And yet, Thou art doing just that, but the things so\nhold our vision! And the Master's answer is the same as to the young Jew.\nWe need the decisive \"go\"; the incisive, inclusive \"sell\"; the privileged\n\"give\"; the new-meaninged \"come\" into His presence. And then we may get\n\"in behind\" Him, and follow close up in the \"same road,\" with eyes for\nnaught but Himself.\n\n\n\nOutstanding Experiences.\n\n\nI want to follow the Master's plan, and ask you to take a good look at His\n\"Follow Me\" road. You remember that we have had one talk together about\nthe characteristics of our Lord Jesus' life. Now we want to talk a little\nabout _the experiences_ of His life. And I do not mean that we are to try\nto imitate these experiences, or any of them. The meaning goes much deeper\nthan this, and yet it marks out a simpler road for our feet. I mean that\nas we actually go along with this Master of ours, these experiences will\nwork out in our lives.\n\nAs we let Him in as actual Lord, and get our ears trained for His quiet\nvoice, there will come to us some of the same things that come to Him.\n\nThe same Spirit at work within us, and the same sort of a world at work\nwithout, will so work against each other as to produce certain other\nresults, now as then. It is not to be an attempt at imitation; it's far\nmore. It is to be _obedience_ on our part, a real Presence within on His\npart, and a bitter antagonism without on the world's part; rhythmic full\nglad obedience, a sympathetic powerful real Presence, a tense and\nintensifying subtle, relentless, but continually-being-thwarted\nopposition. The key-note for us is simple, full obedience.\n\nThere were certain great outstanding experiences in our Lord Jesus' life.\nLet us briefly notice what these were and group them together. There was\n_the Bethlehem Birth_. That was a thing altogether distinctive in itself.\nIt was a supernatural birth, the Spirit of God working along purely human\nlines, in a new special way, for a special purpose. It was a rare blending\nof God and man in the action of life. It was followed by _the Nazareth\nLife_; that was a commonplace life, lived in a commonplace village, but\nhallowed by the presence of the Father, and sweetened by the salt of\neverything being done under that Father's loving eye. The Father's\npresence accepted as a real thing became the fragrance of that commonplace\ndaily life. And this life covered most of those human years.\n\nThen our Lord turned from the hidden life of Nazareth to the public\nministry. At its beginning stands _the Jordan Baptism of Power_. In the\npath of simple obedience He had gone to the Jordan, taken a place among\nthe crowds, and accepted John's baptism. And in this act of obedience,\nthere comes the gracious act of His Father's approval, the Holy Spirit\ncame down upon Him in gracious, almighty power. And from this moment He\nwas under the sway of the Spirit of Power. This was the special\npreparation and fitting for all that was to follow.\n\nAt once the Spirit driveth Him into the Wilderness. And for forty days He\ngoes through the great experience of _the Wilderness Temptation_. In\nintensity and in prolonged action, it was the greatest experience thus far\nin His life. He suffered, being tempted. It was a concentration of the\ncontinuous temptation of the following years of action. But the Wilderness\nspelled out two words, temptation _and_ victory; temptation such as had\nnever yet been brought, and met, and fought; victory beyond what the race\nhad known. Temptation came to have a new spelling for man, v-i-c-t-o-r-y.\nIt came to have a new spelling for the tempter, d-e-f-e-a-t.\n\nAfter His virtual rejection by the nation as its Messiah,[52] and the\nimprisonment of him who stood nearest Him as Messiah,--John the Herald,\nthere followed _the Galilean Ministry_. For those brief years He was\nutterly absorbed in personally meeting and ministering to the crying needs\nof the crowds. Compassion for needy men became the ruling under-passion.\nHe was spent out in responding to the needs of men. It was not restricted\nto Galilee, but that stands out as the chief scene of this tireless\nunceasing service. The Galilean ministry meant a life spent in meeting\npersonally the needs of men.\n\nIn the midst of that, made increasingly difficult by the ever-increasing\nopposition, there came the experience of _the Transfiguration Mount_. It\ncomes at a decisive turning point, where He is beginning the higher\ntraining of the Twelve for the tragic ending, so surprising and wholly\nunexpected to them. For a brief moment the dazzling light within was\nallowed to shine through the garments of His humanity. What was within\ntransfigured the outer, the human face and form. And the overwhelming\noutshining light was evidence to those three men of the divine glory, the\nmore-than-human glory hidden away within this human man.\n\nThen within a week of the end came _the Gethsemane Agony._ That was the\nlone, sore stress of spirit under the load of the sin of others. In\nGethsemane He went through in spirit what on the morrow He went through in\nactual experience. Gethsemane was the beginning, the anticipation of\nCalvary, so far as that could be anticipated. Anticipation here was\nterrific; yet less terrific than the actual experience.\n\nAnd then came the climax, the overtopping experience of all for Him, as\nfor us, _the Calvary Cross._ There He died of His own free will. He died\nfor us. He died that we might not die. He took upon Himself what sin\nbrings to us, while the Father's face was hidden. So He freed us from the\nslavery of sin, made a way for us back to real life, and so touched our\nhearts by His love that we were willing to go back.\n\nAnd close upon the heels of that came _the burial in Joseph's tomb_. The\nburial was the completion of the death. The tomb was the climax of the\ncross. He was actually dead and buried. The corn of wheat had fallen down\ninto the ground and been covered up. There was nothing lacking to make\nfull and clear that Jesus had died.\n\nThen came the stupendous experience of _the Resurrection Morning_. Our\nLord Jesus yielded to death fully and wholly. Then He seized death by the\nthroat and strangled it. He put death to death. Then He quietly yielded to\nthe upward gravity of His sinless life and rose up. He lived the dependent\nlife even so far as yielding to death, and now the Father quietly brought\nHim back again to life, to a new life.\n\nAnd after waiting a while on earth among men, long enough to make it quite\nclear to His disciples that it was really Himself really back again, He\nquietly yielded further to the upward gravity, and entered upon _the\nAscension Life_, up in the Father's presence. That life is one of\nintercession. He ever liveth to make intercession for us.[53] He is our\npleading advocate at the Father's right hand.[54] Thirty years of the\nNazareth life, three and a half years of personal service, nineteen\nhundred years, almost, of praying. What an acted-out lesson to us on\nprayer, the big place it had and has with Him, the true proportion of\nprayer to all else!\n\nThese are the experiences of our Lord Jesus that stand out clear above\nthe mountain range of His life. It was all a high mountain range; these\nare the great peaks jutting sharply up above the range.\n\n\n\nAt the Loom.\n\n\nNow these peaks, these outstanding experiences, as you look at them a bit,\nseem to fall naturally into three groups. There were certain experiences\nof power and of privilege, the Bethlehem Birth, the Jordan Baptism, the\nNazareth Life, and the Galilean Ministry.\n\nThere were experiences of suffering and sacrifice, the Wilderness\nTemptation, the Gethsemane Agony, the Calvary Death, and the Joseph's Tomb\nof Burial.\n\nAnd then there were certain experiences of gladness and great glory, the\nTransfiguration Mount, the Resurrection Morning, the Ascension Life, and,\nwe shall find a fourth here also, a future experience, the Kingdom Reign\nand Glory.\n\nThese outstanding events, while distinct in themselves, are also\nrepresentative of continual experiences. The Jordan Baptism stands not\nonly for that event, but for the power throughout those forty and two\nmonths. The same sort of suffering that came in Gethsemane had run all\nthrough His life, but is strongest in Gethsemane. So each of these\nexperiences is really like a peak resting upon the mountain range of\nconstant similar experience. And these three groups of experience\ncontinuously intermingled, interlaced and interwoven, made up the pattern\nof that wondrous life.\n\nNow these same experiences of His are also the great experiences that will\ncharacterize the \"Follow Me\" life, for every one who will follow fully. It\nwill always remain true that these experiences were distinctive of Him.\nThey meant more to Him than they will or can mean to any other. But it is\nalso true that they will come to us in a degree that will mean everything\nto us.\n\nI want to change the figure of speech here. I think it will help. This\ninvitation, \"Follow Me,\" is the language of a road, the picture of one\nwalking behind another in a road. And that will remain in our minds as the\nchief picture of this pleading call. But there's another bit of picture\ntalking that will help. That is the picture of a weaver's loom, with the\nwarp threads running lengthwise, the shuttle threads running crosswise,\nand the cross beam (or batten) driving each shuttle thread into place in\nthe cloth with a sharp blow.\n\nThese three groups of experiences are like so many hanks of threads in\nthe loom, in which the pattern of life is being woven. The experiences of\npower and privilege are the warp threads running lengthwise of the loom,\ninto which the others are woven. These make up the foundation of the\nfabric.\n\nThe other two groups make up the shuttle threads, running crosswise, being\nwoven into the warp. The experiences of suffering and sacrifice are the\ndark threads, the gray threads, sometimes quite black, and the red\nthreads, blood red. The experiences of gladness and glory are the bright\nthreads, yellow, golden, sunny threads.\n\nAnd the daily round of life, the decisions, the actual step after step in\nliving out the decisions, the patient steady pushing on, is the beam that\nwith sharp blow pushes each thread into its place in the fabric being\nwoven.\n\nAs we allow the same Spirit that swayed our Lord's life to control us, He\nwill work out in us certain of these same experiences. And the enmity\naroused, and working against that Spirit's presence and control, will\nbring certain other experiences. Our part will be simple obedience,\nlistening, looking, studying quietness so as to insure keener ears and\neyes--it's the quiet spirit that hears what He is saying--then obeying,\nusing all the strength of will, and all the grace at our disposal, simply\nto hold steady and true, and to obey, no matter what threatens to come, or\nwhat actually does come. This will be found to be like weaving.\n\nProbably you have often heard of how the weavers work in the famous\nGobelin tapestry factories in Paris. They know nothing of the beauty of\nthe pattern being woven. They work on the \"wrong\" side, the under side of\nthe web. They miss the inspiration of seeing the rare beauty they\nthemselves are making. All the weaver sees is the apparent tangle of many\ncoloured threads and thread ends, while he thrusts in his needles\naccording to the card of instructions. The more faithfully and skilfully\nhe can follow the directions the better a piece of weaving work is done.\n\nWe simply obey. We use all the strength we have, and the skill we can\nacquire, in obeying. We are not to depend on what we can see or feel for\ninspiration, only on the Master Looms-man; on His word, written, and\nspoken in our hearts, and on His answering peace within. Obedience is the\none key-note for all the music. Surrender is the first act of full\nobedience. Obedience is the habitual surrender. Our part is to hear right\nand do what He bids.\n\nSome day we shall be fairly swept off our feet by the beauty of the\npattern He has been weaving--_if_ we've let Him have His way at the loom.\n\n\n\n\n2. The Main Road--Experiences of Power And Privilege\n\n\n\nThe Bethlehem Birth.\n\n\nThere were four of these experiences in our Lord's life. At the very\nbeginning came _the Bethlehem Birth_. That meant for Him a birth out of\nthe usual course of nature, yet working within nature's usual processes.\nIt was something more-than-the-natural coming down into the natural. The\npower of the Holy Spirit came upon the pure gentle maiden of Nazareth and\na new human life was begotten by Him within her, and in due course came to\nthe maturity of birth. This was a distinctive thing with Jesus.\n\nNow, in quite a different sense, but in a very real sense, there will be\nfor us, too, a Bethlehem Birth. The Holy Spirit will come in and begin a\nnew life within us. This is the only beginning of the \"Follow Me\" life for\nany of us. There's a something on the Spirit's part before there can be a\nbeginning on my part. Yet that hardly tells the whole story. My part is\nreally first; I open the door for Him to come in. When I accept Jesus as\nmy Saviour, that's opening the door. The Spirit comes in and begins the\nnew life within me. And yet there's another first before that first act of\nmine. He woos me with His patient, tender love. That is the first first.\nThen I open the door: at once He comes in, and does the thing which only\nHe can do. So begins the \"Follow Me\" life. This is the real, the only\nbeginning.\n\nAnd yet there's more here of the practical sort than we have thought of,\nmost of us. It means that there is within us a life higher than the\nnatural life, and this higher life is to _be_ higher, it is to be the\n_controlling_ life. It is to hold the upper hand over the natural life.\nThe control is to be from above. That is to say, the motives and desires\nof the upper life are to be dominant in my daily round. It is the\nFather-pleasing life as contrasted with the natural life, of which we\ntalked a while ago. Wherever the two come in conflict, the upper is to\nrule.\n\nNow, I know this rather runs across the grain of a good deal of our\nso-called Christian life. There are a good many people who, let us really\nbelieve, have been \"born again,\" to use the familiar phrase, yet they seem\nto have stayed in the being-born stage, the infancy stage. That which was\n\"born again\" in them seems not to have been developed. It has never been\nallowed to grow. The under life has been given the upper hand, and the\nupper life kept strictly down. The salt isn't salty. The common round of\nlife is seasoned wholly by the old seasoning.\n\nOur Lord's \"Follow Me\" becomes a radical, decisive thing at the very\nstart. It means that we will allow this new life of the Spirit to grow\ninto lusty vigour, and to become the controlling life So it will be the\nchief thing. All the life shall be directed and controlled _from above._\nThis is a result that will come of itself if we really follow. Obedience,\nand back of that the quiet time on the knees with the Book, will give food\nand air and growing space to this new life, and its growth will crowd down\nthe other.\n\n\n\nThe Jordan Baptism of Power.\n\n\nThen there was a _Jordan Baptism of Power_ in our Lord's life. This stood\nat the beginning of His leadership, His life-work, His service among men.\nAs He came up out of the Jordan waters He stood waiting in prayer. He was\nexpecting something. His whole being was absorbed in the expectancy of\nwhat had been promised.[55] And that expectancy was not disappointed. None\nthat wait on God shall be put to confusion by any disappointment.[56] The\nblue above was rift through, the Holy Spirit as a gentle dove came, and\nremained upon Him, and the Father's voice of pleased approval spoke to His\ngrateful, obedient heart. From that time the whole control of His life was\nabsolutely in the hands of the Holy Spirit.\n\nThis does not mean an inert passivity on Jesus' part; it meant a strong,\nintelligent yielding to the Holy Spirit. It does not mean that His natural\nfaculties of mind and will and heart were held down, not to be used. It\nmeans that they were actively, studiously used in discerning the Holy\nSpirit's leading, and in doing as He directed. And it means that so there\ncame a fulness of life, an increasing life, into His faculties, mind and\nwill and heart. Our Lord Jesus used all His powers in yielding to the\ninspiration and direction and control of the Holy Spirit, keeping ever\nopen to His suggestion, and making that suggestion the law of His own\naction.\n\nAnd the Spirit of Omnipotence, working with the gentleness of a dove,\nbreathed upon those yielded powers, and breathed through them, even as had\nbeen planned with the first breathing of this sort, in Eden. So from the\nWilderness clear up to the last Olivet command to the disciples,\neverything was done at the bidding, the direction of this Spirit. And so\nthe almighty power was breathed into every word and action and bit of\nsuffering. The one key-note of the Master's action was obedience; the\nresult was the flooding of the Spirit's omnipotence through His obedient\nfaculties and life.\n\nNow, _as we follow_, this same sort of experience will be ours. What a\ntremendous thing to say! Yet the road was being beaten down for _our\nfeet_. The Son of Man was simply showing to His brother-men the road we\nwere all meant to go, showing it by going in it. All the power that came\ninto Jesus' life will come into ours, _if_ He is given His way. For the\nHoly Spirit is not measured out, either to Him or to us,[57] but poured\nout without stint.[58] As we follow we shall be led along behind the Man\ngoing before.\n\nThere will need to be instruction, for we're so new to this road. And\nhuman teachers are sent by the Holy Spirit to help us understand, teachers\nin print, and teachers in shoes. There will need to be the initial act of\nfull surrender to the Lord Jesus as Lord indeed, for most of us have been\ngoing another way than this. There will need to be a house-cleaning time,\nfor we have let in so much of another sort.\n\nA soft, but very honest, searching light will come flooding in through the\nsky-light windows. And as we instinctively go to our knees and faces\nbecause of what that light brings to light, there will be a wondrous\ncleansing, both by blood and by fire. Then will come a filling of our very\nbeing by this wondrous Spirit of God.\n\nHow shall we know this filling, do you ask? There will be a quiet, deep\npeace, at times a great joy that sings, but ever the deep peace that\n_holds_ you, a new hunger for the old Book, and a new soft light on its\npages. There will be an inner drawing to talk with God, and an intense\ndesire to please Him, to find out what He wants you to do, and then to do\nit.\n\nThere will come other things too, of a less pleasant sort, temptation\nwill come anew, and a sense--sometimes very acute--of sin, a feeling that\nthere's a something within you fighting you, the new you. There will be an\nincreased sensitiveness to sin, and an intense hatred of it. This is what\nthe filling means. These things will tell you that He, the Spirit, has\ntaken possession of what you surrendered, and that He is now at work\nwithin. These are His finger-prints.\n\nThen there will be the outflowing side of this filling. A passion that all\nmen may know this compassionate God, will come as a fire burning in your\nbones. Its flames will envelop and go through everything you are and have\nand can do. But under all will be the passion for pleasing the Lord Jesus.\nObedience will become the chief thing, holding everything else in check,\nobedience to Him, pleasing Him, doing His will.\n\nThe Bethlehem Birth is the _beginning_ of a new, a supernatural life\nwithin; _this_ will be the actual life itself, in full vigour and power.\nThat is the supernatural birth, this the supernatural life. That is, there\nis at work within you, very quietly and simply, a power more than the\nnatural, working through the natural order, and sometimes upsetting what\nwe may have grown to think of as the natural order. This is the Jordan\nBaptism of Power, the Holy Spirit taking charge, and you living a\nSpirit-controlled life. There's a new sign hung out over your life, \"this\nlife is being conducted under new management.\" You won't say it; it won't\nbe shouted out. It'll be louder yet. Your _life_ will be telling it\ncontinually.\n\n\n\nPower Is in the Current.\n\n\nThe word to emphasize here is _control_. You will find new meanings, that\nyou had not thought of, gradually working out of it. If the Holy Spirit\nhad control of us as He had of--Philip, for instance. He picked Philip up\nout of the midst of the Samaritan crowd, where he was the human centre of\nthings, and put him down away off here in the desert,--_strange\ncontrast!_--and with one lone traveller, greater contrast yet![59] If He\nwere free to pick you and me up like that, out of these surroundings,\ncongenial and pleasant, and set us down where we had no thought of going,\nand never would have gone of our own choice, and we sing as we are picked\nup, _and_ keep on singing where we find ourselves amidst the uncongenial\nperhaps, the strange, the unprecedented and hard,--_if_ He were free to\ncontrol like that these days, there would be a present-day Pentecost\nbeside which the Acts-Pentecost was but the beginnings of the throbbings\nof power.\n\nThere are some peculiarities of this \"Follow Me\" road here. There comes a\nstrangely new sense of proportion. As you follow close up behind the Man\nahead, you will grow _smaller_, and He will grow _larger_. No, that's not\nan accurate statement; you won't _grow_ any smaller, you will only find\nout how small you are. He won't grow any larger, you will simply be\nfinding out, and then finding out more, how large He is. It'll seem\nstrange to most of us, finding out our real size, or lack of the size we\nalways supposed we were. But it will come with a great awing,\nheart-subduing sense, to find how marvellous in size this great Man is;\nand yet He is our brother, as well as so immensely more.\n\nYou come to find out that power, that thing that used to be so much talked\nabout, and defined, and yet chiefly wondered about, that power is a matter\nof position. The man close in behind the Lord Jesus doesn't need to be\nconcerned about power. In fact he isn't concerned about it, only concerned\nwith keeping close in touch. All the rest comes without our being\nconcerned. It comes from him, the Man ahead. There is far more power, the\nvery power of God, softly flowing and flooding its way in and through and\nout, than you are ever conscious of. Others will know more of the power\nthan you. You are thinking about the Man ahead, keeping in touch, pleasing\nHim. Obedience has become a new word to you. It's the music of keeping\nstep, keeping step with Him.\n\nHave you noticed how much the current of the stream will do for you if you\nare out in a row-boat? All you need to do is to keep up enough motion to\nhold the boat within the sweep of the current. Then your chief task is\n_steering_. You're not concerned about power; only about the steering.\nThere's more power in the current than you can ever use. Your one concern\nis to keep out of the shallows and sucking side-eddies, away from snag and\nrock, and _in the current._ The power's in the current. Right steering\nbrings all that power to bear on your little boat.\n\nNow, power here is a matter of steering, so far as our part is concerned.\nWe steer to get into the current of our Lord Jesus' will, and, by His\ngrace, we use all our will power in _keeping_ in that current, and out of\nthe shallows and suction-eddies at the side. The Lord Jesus, once spit\nupon and crucified, now seated \"far above all rule, and authority, and\npower, and dominion, and every name that is named,\" and _at work on earth\nthrough His Holy Spirit_,--this Lord Jesus, _free to do as He\nchooses_,--this is power. _He_ is power.\n\nPower is the Lord Jesus in action, and the action is always through some\nman's life. We steer so as to keep in touch. He acts through the man in\ntouch. And the hungry, needy crowds know a something coming to them, with\nirresistible grateful sweep.\n\n\n\nLiving a Nazareth Life.\n\n\nThere was a third experience in this group. Our Lord Jesus lived _the\nNazareth Life_. In actual order of time this came before the baptism of\npower. I have changed the order here, and named it third simply for the\npractical help in the change. With the Lord Jesus, the whole of the life\nwas under the sway of the Holy Spirit from birth on, through the earliest\nconscious years, and all the years. With us, in actual experience, we are\nall free to confess that it has not been so from our Spirit-birth on.\n\nThat baptism of power at Jordan was without doubt a baptism of power for\nleadership and service. Service and leadership ever need the time of\nspecial waiting on God, and the fresh anointing by the Holy Spirit's\ntouch, the fresh consciousness of Himself, as the only source of power in\nthe service and leadership.\n\nIn our actual experience the Holy Spirit, coming in power, has had much to\ndo in changing our habits, ourselves, and our lives, as well as in our\nservice. There has been so much service that has not been backed up by the\nlife, that many have come to feel, and to feel very deeply, that the power\nin service must have its roots in the human side, deep down in the daily\nhabit of life. With our Lord Jesus that Jordan experience made no\ndifference of this sort in His life. There was nothing needing to be\nchanged. That Nazareth life had been lived continuously under the control\nof the Holy Spirit.\n\nLook a moment at that Nazareth life of His. It means simply a commonplace,\ntreadmill round of life lived under the hallowing touch of the Father's\npresence. This was according to the original plan. It is God's presence\nrecognized that hallows what is common. It is the absence of His presence,\nthat is, the leaving of Him out, that makes common things common; that is,\nit makes the familiar thing and round _seem_ and _feel_ common. It's the\nunhallowed and unhallowing touch of the selfish, of sin, that makes things\nseem common, in the sense of not being holy and sweet and pure and\nrefreshing. Sin makes things grow stale to you. Selfishness affects your\neye, the way things look to you. God's presence recognized keeps things\nfresh. His touch upon us, ever afresh, makes us fresh. Everything we touch\nand see is touched by a God-freshened hand, and seen through a\nGod-freshened eye.\n\nNow Jesus lived this commonplace round of life, and lived it under the\never-freshening touch of His Father's presence. It isn't the thing you do,\nnor the things that surround you, that make your life, but the spirit that\nbreathes out of you in the midst of the things. It's the _you_ in you that\nmakes the life, regardless of surroundings. The outer things are the\naccidents, you, the spirit that breathes out of you,--this is the real\nthing.\n\nJesus _lived_ it. That is the tremendous fact that Nazareth stands for.\nHe lived what He taught, and He lived it first, and He lived it far more\ndeeply and really than it could be taught to others. This was the basis of\nthose few service years. Nazareth lies under the Galilean ministry. There\nwere thirty years under the three-and-a-half-years. And the thirty years\ncrop up into and out of the three-and-a-half. The life lived was the great\nfact at work, as the Man went about doing good. The hidden life of\nNazareth lies open in the Galilean ministry.\n\nWhen you are reading the wonderful works among the needy throngs, you are\nreading the biography of the Nazareth years, in their outer reach. The\nlife you live is the thing that tells! This is the meaning of the thirty\nhidden years. The Father said, \"My Son shall spend most of His years down\nthere _living_, just living a true, simple Eden life; living with Me in\nthe midst of home and carpenter shop and village.\" This is what the world\nneeds so much to be taught, how to live. And the teaching must be by\nliving, teaching by action. The message must be lived.\n\nIf we men might live Jesus! That's what the world needs. At one of the\nsmaller meetings of the Edinburgh Conference, in 1910, a Christian\ngentleman from India, native of that land, said, \"We don't need more\nBibles in India.\" And then to this surprising statement, he added, \"We\nhave enough Bibles. If the Christians in India would _live the Bible_,\nIndia would be converted.\" And I thought, that will do for America, and\nEngland, and for all the world. _Jesus lived it_. As a man in His\ndecisions and actions, His habits and daily round, He lived the truth.\n\nThe story is told of a missionary in some part of Africa who had not had\nmuch success in his work. He was in the habit of explaining some portion\nof the New Testament to the people at His house. One day the portion\ncontained the words, \"give to him that asketh thee, and from him that\nwould borrow of thee turn thou not away.\"[60] The people asked him if this\nmeant what it said. He told them that it did. One of them said he would\nlike to have the table, pointing to it; another asked for a chair, another\nfor the bed, and so on. The missionary was rather startled at such literal\ntaking of his teaching. He told them to come again on the morrow, and he\nwould give his answer.\n\nWhen they had gone, he and his wife had rather a heart-searching time\ntogether. They felt they had not reached the hearts of the people yet. But\nto do as they asked meant real sacrifice of a very personal sort. At last\nwith much prayer they decided to meet the people where they had opened the\nway. And so the next day they gave their answer, and soon the house was\nliterally bare of all its furnishings. And that night they slept on the\nfloor, yet with a sweet peace in their hearts in the midst of this strange\nexperience.\n\nThe next day the people came back, carrying the furniture. They had\nreally been testing these new-comers. \"Now,\" they said, \"we believe you.\nYou _live_ your Book. We want you to teach us.\" And with open hearts they\nlistened anew to the Gospel story, and many of them accepted Christ.\n\nThe little incident reveals the unity of the race. Those Africans said\nwhat England and America and all the world is saying, \"_Live it_.\" Is your\nreligion _livable_? What the world needs to-day is _a Jesus lived_, not\nsimply taught, nor preached about, but lived in the power of the Holy\nSpirit. How the fire, the holy fire, of that sort of thing would catch and\nspread! Oh, yes, it might mean sleeping on the bare floor! That's what\nliving-it means, the actual life overriding any mere thing that stands in\nthe way.\n\n\n\nLive It.\n\n\nI stood one day on the abrupt edge of a little hill in a Southern Japanese\ncity. There, in a great tree hanging out over the edge, had hung the bell\nthat called together the faithful retainers of the lord of the province,\nwhen they were needed. There, nearly thirty years ago, a little band of\nJapanese youth, of noble families, had gone out at break of day one\nSabbath morning, and solemnly covenanted to follow the Lord Jesus, and to\ndevote their lives to making Him known throughout their land. Boys still\nin their tender teens most of them were. And that covenant was not\nlightly made, for already the fires of persecution had been kindled, and\nthese fires burned fiercely but could not compete with the fire in their\nhearts. And as one goes up and down the island empire of the Pacific\nto-day, he can find traces of their lives cropping up everywhere, like\ngold veins above the soil.\n\nAnd as I sought to trace the hidden springs of the power at work behind\nall this, I found it was in the _life_ of one young man, a simple, holy\nlife burning with a passion for Jesus. In this life could be found the\nkindling of the tender flames burning so hotly in these young hearts. He\nwas a young American officer engaged, by the feudal lord of the province,\nto teach military tactics and English. He dared not teach Christianity;\nthat would have meant instant dismissal. So for two years he _lived_ the\nmessage, so simply and lovingly that he won the love of his pupils. Then\nthey came Sundays to his house to hear him read the English Bible, because\nthey loved him. As he prayed the tears would run down his face, and they\nlaughed to think a _man_ would weep, but they came because they loved him.\nHe really _loved them into the Christian life_. I was reminded of the line\nin Hezekiah's song of thanksgiving after his illness, \"Thou hast loved my\nsoul up from the pit.\"[61] This young teacher _lived his pupils to the\nLord Jesus_. The latter part of his life was a sad one, but nothing can\nchange the record of those earlier years.\n\nI saw recently a news item telling how many million copies of the Bible\nare being printed every year. The item slurringly remarked that the\nstatisticians didn't seem concerned yet with figuring up how many of them\nwere read. But, I thought, what these Bibles need is a new binding. This\nBible I carry is bound in the best sealskin, with kid-lining. It is\nsupposed to be the best binding for hard wear. But there's a much better\nsort of leather than that for Bible binding; I mean _shoe leather_. The\npeople want the Bible bound in shoe leather. When we tread this Bible out\nin our daily walk, when what we are becomes an illustrated copy of the\nBible, the greatest revival the earth has known will come. With utmost\nreverence let me say that our Lord Jesus wants to come and walk around in\nour shoes, and live inside our garments, and touch men through us.\n\nI remember something in my early Christian life that was a sore temptation\nto me. There were some Christian leaders who had helped me greatly by\ntheir preaching and writings. Then it chanced that I was thrown into\npersonal contact with them, now one, now another. And I had a sore\ndisappointment. It's hard to find that your idol has clay feet. It's\ndoubtless wrong to have idols. Yet youth is the time of such idol worship.\nThe disappointment was a very sore one. Then out of it I was led to see\nthat the Master never disappoints. And there was a drawing nearer to\nHimself alone.\n\nAnd then a questioning arose: was some one perhaps looking at me? And a\nburning desire came to be more in life than in speech, not only for the\nsake of some one, perchance looking; but for the sake of that other One,\nthe Man with eyes of flame, His looking. I need hardly tell you that it\nhas been my blessed privilege to have had personal contact with leaders\nwhose fragrant lives are so much more than word or act.\n\nThe Nazareth life means that the Lord Jesus lived His message, amid\ncommonplace surroundings, in the midst of what is called the dull monotony\nof the daily round. That is, in the place where it is hardest to do it, He\nlived every bit of what He taught. And as we follow, simply, obediently,\nthe Spirit will lead us along this same road. The same experience will\nhappen to us. Could there be a greater evidence of the power of this Holy\nSpirit than to do such a thing with such as we know ourselves to be? Yet\nHe will, _if_ we let Him. A big \"if\" you say? But not too big to be taken\nout of the way, out of His way. He will live out through us what He puts\ninto us, by and with our constant consent.\n\nThis is the meaning of the Nazareth life. Our part is obedience, simple,\nintelligent, strong obedience to Him. The result will be this same\nexperience, a Nazareth life of purity and power lived by the Spirit's\npower.\n\nThis was the thought in the mind of Horatius Bonar, as he wrote of the\nunnamed woman who anointed our Lord's head, and of whom Jesus said that\nwhat she had done should be told as a memorial of her, wherever the Gospel\nshould be preached.\n\n    \"Up and away like dew in the morning,\n      Soaring from earth to its home in the sun,\n    So let me steal away, gently and lovingly,\n      Only remembered by what I have done.\n\n    My name and my place and my tomb all forgotten,\n      The brief race of time well and patiently run,\n    So let me pass away peacefully, silently,\n      Only remembered by what I have done.\n\n    Gladly away from this toil would I hasten,\n      Up to the crown that for me has been won,\n    Unthought of by man in reward and in praises,\n      Only remembered by what I have done.\n\n    Up and away like the odours of sunset\n      That sweeten the twilight as darkness comes on,\n    So be my life--a thing _felt_ but not noticed,\n      And I but remembered by what I have done.\n\n    Yes, like the fragrance that wanders in freshness,\n      When the flowers that it comes from are closed up and gone,\n    So would I be to this world's weary dwellers,\n      Only remembered by what I have done.\n\n    I need not be missed if my life has been bearing,\n      As the summer and autumn move silently on,\n    The bloom and the fruit and the seed of its season;\n      I still am remembered by what I have done.\n\n    I need not be missed if another succeed me,\n        To reap down these fields that in spring\n          I have sown;\n    He who ploughed and who sowed is not missed by the reaper;\n    He is only remembered by what he has done.\n\n    Not myself but the truth that in life I have spoken,\n        Not myself but the seed in life I have sown,\n    Shall pass on to ages--all about _me_ forgotten,\n        Save the truth I have spoken, the things\n          I have done.\n\n    So let my living be, so be my dying,\n        So let my name be emblazoned, unknown,--\n    Unraised and unmissed I shall still be remembered,\n        Yes,--but remembered by what I have done.\"\n\n\n\nThe Galilean Ministry.\n\n\nThe fourth experience in this group was _the Galilean Ministry_. Our Lord\nJesus gave Himself up to helping those in need. He devoted Himself to\npersonal service among men. After John's imprisonment He withdrew to\nGalilee and ministered to the needy.\n\nThere were crowds of them. They were in sorest need of body and spirit.\nAnd He gave Himself freely out to them in glad helpful service. He met\ntheir need. He did whatever their condition called for. He ministered to\ntheir bodily needs. He mingled among them freely as an older brother or\nfriend, holding their children on His knees while He talked with them over\ntheir concerns and troubles. But He didn't stop there. Having won their\nhearts, He met their deeper needs. He comforted their hearts, talked to\nthem one by one, drawing out their hearts, and speaking of the Father.\n\nAnd as the crowds thickened, He taught and preached to the multitudes. He\nwas a preacher, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom. He was a teacher,\nbit by bit, line upon line, patiently teaching and explaining to them\nabout the Father's love, and about the true life and how to live it. Three\nwords are used several times to characterize that Galilean ministry,\nteaching and preaching and healing.[62]\n\nHe warned against sin, patiently wooing erring men and women away from\ntheir sin into lives of purity, and strengthening the young and earnest in\ntheir purposes. The need of the crowd swept Him like a strong wind in the\nyoung trees. He couldn't resist their plea. The presence of a man in need,\nof either body or spirit, took hold of His heart. Over and over we are\ntold that He was \"moved with compassion.\" What a life it was! What a heart\nHe had!\n\nNow our Lord Jesus calls us along this bit of the road. That is to say,\nthe Holy Spirit within us will make our hearts tender and compassionate,\neven as our Lord Jesus was. The crowds always moved Him tremendously. He\ncouldn't stand the great dumb cry that the mere presence of a multitude\nrang in His ears. The mere presence of some one in need, earnestly\nseeking, played upon the strings of His heart.\n\nDoes the crowd get hold of your heart as you elbow your way through them,\nor look down into their faces? Is it just a crowd to you? Or is it a great\ncompany of hungry hearts, half-starved lives, so needy for what only this\nLord Jesus can give? The dumb cry of the crowds, in crowds and one by one,\ncomes up in our ears to-day. Do you hear it? I say \"dumb,\" for they don't\nknow themselves what it is they need. They feel the need. Restless and\nchafing, they feel without knowing just what it is they lack and need.\n\nWhen the Spirit that swayed the Lord Jesus comes in, He mightily affects\nyour heart. You feel with something of our Lord's feeling. And you _must_\nhelp. You know that the one thing, the only thing, that can really\nradically meet their need is this Saviour Jesus. You must do something to\nget them really to know Him. And that something comes to be everything.\nService isn't a pastime; it's a passion. That \"must\" sends you out on glad\nunheralded errands to help in any way you can, and in every way by which\nthe Jesus message can get to them.\n\nThe \"must\" of His tender passion within keeps you steadily pushing ahead,\nregardless of not being understood by some, nor your efforts appreciated\nby others. The flame of that \"must\" takes hold of time and strength and\npossessions. It becomes the delight of your life to minister to the needs\nof men, even as He did. You see them through His eyes. You feel their need\nthrough His heart. _And_--this is a great _and_--if you really follow as\nsimply and fully as He leads, you will find _the same power_ working out\nthrough your effort as through His, though there will be immensely more of\nit than you will know about.\n\nBut--there's a \"but\" that needs to be put in here--the key-note will not\nbe service, but _obedience_. The need will not be the controlling thing.\nIt will move you tremendously; it will kindle a sweet fever in your heart,\na fever to help; it will take hold of your heart strings and play upon\nthem until you almost lose control. But it must not be allowed to control.\nThat belongs to Him alone.\n\nThe key-note is not need, nor service to meet the need, but obedience.\nThere is a Lord to the harvest. His plans are worked carefully out. He\ntakes Philip away from the crowded meetings in Samaria to talk with one\nman. It was doubtless a strategic move to touch lives in Africa, as well\nas to meet this one man's need. He feels the need more than you ever do or\ncan. His ears are keener, His heart more tender. He is in command. You do\nas He bids. So you help most in meeting the need.\n\nHe Himself when down here left the crowds, when they were so great that\nthe towns were overwhelmed and they had to be taken out to the country\nplaces. He would leave these crowds and go off quietly to get alone with\nHis Father.[63] All that tireless ministry was under the direction of\nAnother. He went off for close touch, and fresh consultation with His\nFather.\n\n\n\nThe Father's Image in the Common Crowd.\n\n\nHave you ever wondered what there was in those common crowds to attract\nour Lord Jesus? Perhaps if you have ever walked in those narrow crowded\nalleys called streets, in China or Japan, you may have wondered,\nsometimes. Tired, dirty, pinched faces, eyes vacantly staring, or else\nfired with low passion, high-keyed voices bickering and jangling,--all\nthis crowds in and out on every hand. Dirt, disease, low passion,\nselfishness, apparent absence of anything noble or refined, are all\ntangled inextricably up with these in human form.\n\nAnd our Lord Jesus lived in an Oriental world. Is there any world quite\nlike it, except indeed it be the slums of our western world cities,\nEuropean and American? City slums seem to be our western point of contact\nwith the greater part of the eastern world. What was there to attract the\nLord Jesus to these crowds? Their need, you answer. Yes, no doubt, their\nterrible need did move Him with compassion, to the hurting point.\n\nBut was there more than this? Something He said one time has made me\nthink there was something more, a pathetic, tremendous more, that took\nhold of His heart. Could it be that He saw some lingering trace of the\nFather's face in these faces? His eyes were very keen. He had seeing eyes.\nAnd these men have all been made in the Father's image. Has that image\never been wholly lost?--terribly blurred and scarred by sin, yes; but\nwholly lost? Do you think so? I think not.\n\nThose wondrous eyes of His looking into men's tired, pinched faces,\ndisfigured with passion or sorrow, or with sheer weariness of\nexistence--did He see something of the Father's face looking appealingly\nup to be helped out of their sad plight? I wonder. Was it as though the\nFather's face cried out to Him out of these poor beaten faces? I think so.\nDo you remember that time when our Lord Jesus associated Himself so\nclosely with just such men and women, in talking of a coming day? He says\n\"inasmuch as ye did it to one of these My brethren, these least, ye did it\nunto Me.\"[64] Listen to those words, \"My brethren\"! He is thinking of just\nsuch crowds as He Himself ministered to, and as you find to-day in\nOriental city and in European and American slum. What is done for them is\ndone to Him. Their need is His need; their cry, His. It's Jesus coming to\nus in these crowds. Their need is Jesus Himself appealing to us. And the\nJesus within us will answer with heart and life to this Jesus coming to\nus in the pitiable need of the crowds.\n\nI do not mean to use that word \"pitiable\" chiefly in the bodily sense,\nthough there's so much of that. But it has a deeper meaning. Here is this\nfair young face turned to yours in the social group, here this strong\nyoung man needing nothing that money can buy, but yet very needy, both of\nthem. In their young, eager faces the hidden away image, the\nnot-yet-touched-into-new-life image of the Father looks out asking for\nhelp, help out into growth amidst so much that holds back. Inasmuch as\nyour light, tactful touch is given here, it is done unto Jesus. Jesus is\nhelped into the life, the God-image crowded back within is helped to get\nout into free expression.\n\nYou may not be sent to some distant field as young Borden was. Your\npersonal place may be at home. But the crowd, the need, is everywhere; at\nhome, in the social circle, and among the men driven by the passion for\nbusiness and for pleasure, in this dangerously prosperous land of ours.\nNeed of body even here, and deeper need of spirit. Much more tact is\nrequired, Spirit-born tact and patience and alertness, to touch and help\nthese.\n\nBut the Spirit will guide. He has a passion for men in their need. He has\nexquisite tact in touching men under all circumstances. He will take\ncommand of your life here as elsewhere. He will lead you into a life of\npersonal service in helping men. And He will lead you _in_ that service.\nThis is the Galilean Ministry which will work out in your experience as\nthe Holy Spirit has control. This is a bit of the \"Follow Me\" roadway.\n\nThese are the four experiences of power and privilege. They are as the\ngreat underlying experiences of our Lord's career. The other experiences\ngrew up out of these. These were the warp threads in the loom of His life.\nThe others were woven into these. This is the main road that He trod. It\nis the main road of this \"Follow Me\" journey. It is along this road,\nbetween its beginning and end, that we shall run down into the valley-road\nstretches, and run up to the stretches along the hilltops.\n\n\n\n\n3. The Valleys--experiences of Suffering And Sacrifice\n\n\n\nThe Never-absent Minor.\n\n\nHere the road begins to drop down into the valleys. It runs sharply down,\nand on, through some wild gulches and ravines thick with lurking danger,\nwith the upper-lights almost lost in the deep black darkness. It is\ndarkness that can be felt more than the Egyptian darkness ever was. It\nproves to be the valley of the shadow of death, then--of death itself,\nbefore the upward turn comes.\n\nThe weaver we were speaking of finds some strange shuttle-threads to be\nwoven into the pattern, gray black, ugly black threads, and red threads\nalmost wet and sticky in their blood-like redness.\n\nYet this is part of the road that was trodden, and that is still waiting\nto be trodden by feet sturdy and bold enough to go on down into the\nshadows, before the upward turn is reached again. And these threads will\nwork out a rare beauty in the pattern being woven.\n\nIs there perfect music without the underchording of the minor? Not to\nhuman ears. For they are attuned to life as it has really come to be. And\nthe minor chord is in real life, never quite absent; and the minor chord\nis in the true human heart, never wholly absent. And only the music with\nthe minor blended in is the real music of human life. Only it can play\nupon the finest strings of the human heart.\n\nBut this sort of thing, the getting of beauty out of ugly threads, the\ngetting of music where there is discord, the upward turn again of the\nvalley road, all this is a bit of the touch of God upon life, where the\nhurt of sin has come in. Only the Lord Jesus can make music where sin had\nbrought in and wrought out such discord. Only He can change the weaving\ninto beauty, where the ugly slimy sin-threads have come in. He can lead up\nagain out of the depths, but only He. His blood, Himself, is the thing\nadded that makes music where no melody had ever been a possible thing; and\ngives the weaver's threads the transforming touch that works beauty where\nthere was only the ugly; and pulls you up again to the higher levels. The\ngood never comes out of bad. It comes only by something radically\ndifferent coming in and overcoming the bad.\n\nIn Seoul they showed us the great bell hung at the crossing of certain\nchief streets there. And then they told us the bell's legend. In early\ntwilight times an artisan had made a great bell at the king's command, but\nthe tone of it was not pleasing to the royal ears. So a second one was\nmade, and a third, but neither was satisfactory. Then the king said that\nif the man did not make a bell with pleasing tones his life should be\nforfeited for his failure. This was very distressing for the poor\nunfortunate bell-moulder.\n\nHis daughter, a young girl in her teens, either had a vision, or felt\nwithin herself that a sacrifice was the thing needful to give the bell its\ntrue tone. And so she resolved to give herself to save her father, and\nwith rare fortitude one night she plunged into the great pot of molten\nmetal. And the tone of the bell was so sweet and musical that the king was\ndelighted. And the maker, instead of being killed, was highly honoured. So\nran the simple bit of Korean folklore.\n\nWe ran across legends quite like it in other parts of the Orient. They all\nseemed to point, with other similar evidence, to the feeling deep down in\nhuman consciousness of the need of sacrifice. Is it a bit of an innate\ninstinct in our common human nature, that only through sacrifice can the\nhurt of life be healed? However this be, it certainly is true, that the\ntouch of Him who gave His life clear out for men, that touch is the thing,\nand the only thing, that can make music where there was only discord. It\nis only His pierced hand upon weaver and web that touches ugly threads\ninto beauty as they are woven into the fabric of life. Only He can lead us\nup out of the valley of death up to the road of life along the high\nhilltops.\n\n\n\nThe Wilderness.\n\n\nYou remember, there were four experiences of suffering and sacrifice in\nour Lord Jesus' life. The first of these was _the Wilderness Temptation_.\nThat rough road He took led straight to and through a wilderness. He was\ntempted. He was tempted like as we are. He was tempted more cunningly and\nstormily than we ever have been.\n\nIt was a pitched battle, planned for carefully, and fought with all the\ndesperateness of the Evil One at bay against overwhelming forces. It was\nplanned by the Holy Spirit, and fought out by our Lord in the Spirit's\nstrength. For forty full lone days it ran its terrific course. But our\nLord's line of defence never flinched. The Wilderness and Waterloo, those\ntwo terrific matchings of strength, the one of the spirit, the other of\nthe physical, both were fought out on the same lines. Wellington's only\nplan for that battle was to _stand_, to resist every attempt to break his\nlines all that fateful day. The French did the attacking all day, until\nWellington's famous charge came at its close.\n\nOur Lord Jesus' only plan for the Wilderness battle was to _stand_, having\ndone all to stand, to resist every effort to move Him a hair's breadth\nfrom His position. That battle brought Him great suffering; it took, and\nit tested, all His strength of discernment, and decision, of determined\nset persistence, and of dependent, deep-breathed praying. And through\nthese the gracious power of the Spirit worked, and so the victory, full\njoyous victory, came.\n\nNow it comes as a surprise to some of us to find that the \"Follow Me\" road\nleads straight to the same Wilderness. No, it is not just the same, none\nof these experiences mean as much to us as they did to Him. They are\nalways less. But then they mean everything to us! We will be tempted. So\nsurely as one sets himself to follow the blessed Master, there's one thing\nhe can always count upon--temptation. Sooner or later it will come,\nusually sooner and later. So the Evil One serves notice to contest our\nallegiance to the new Master.\n\nThe tempter sees to it that you are tempted. That belongs to his side of\nthe conflict. And quickly and skilfully, and with good heart he goes at\nhis task. Through the weak or evil impulses and desires within us, and\nthrough every avenue without, those dearest to us, and every other, he\nwill begin and continue his cunning approaches. It is well to understand\nthis clearly, and so be ready. The closer you follow this Man ahead, the\nmore, and the more surely, will you be tempted. It is one of the things\nyou can count on--temptation.\n\nBut, steady there, steady! the tempter can't go a step beyond attacking,\nwithout your help. He can't make a single break in your lines from\nwithout. The only knob to the door of your life is on the _inside_.\nTemptation never gets in without help from within. I have said that the\nWilderness spelled two words for our Lord Jesus, temptation _and_ victory.\nWe may use His spelling if we will. A temptation is a chance for a\nvictory. Begin singing when temptation comes; out of it, resisted, comes a\nnew steadiness in step, and a new confidence in the victorious Man of the\nWilderness.[65]\n\nBut let me tell you _how_ the victory comes. It comes through our Lord\nJesus. And it comes by His working _through your decision_ to resist to\nthe last ditch.\n\n\n\n\"Lead Us Not.\"\n\n\nThe Lord Jesus gave us two special temptation prayers to make. The one is:\n\"Lead us not into temptation.\"[66] That petition has been a practical\npuzzle to many of us, and the explanations not always quite clear. Would\nGod lead us into temptation? we instinctively ask. And the answer seems to\nbe both \"yes\" and \"no.\"\n\nThe \"yes\" means that character can come only through right choice. We must\ndecide what our attitude toward wrong shall be. It is only temptation\nresisted that makes the beginnings of strength. Before temptation comes\nthere may be innocence but never virtue. Innocence resisting temptation\nbecomes virtue. The temptation is the intense fire in which the raw iron\nof innocence changes into the toughened, tempered steel of virtue. It is\nessential to character that it resist the wrong. It is choice that makes\ncharacter. The angels in the presence of God are continually choosing to\nremain loyal to Him. Choice includes choosing not to choose the evil, to\nrefuse it. Adam was tempted; the temptation was bad, only bad; but it\ncould have been made an opportunity to rise up into newness of strength.\nJob was led into temptation, and he failed when the fires grew in heat,\nand touched him close enough; and then he learned new dependence on God\nalone instead of on his own integrity.\n\nThat's the \"yes\" side of the answer. We must decide what we will do with\nevil. The presence of evil forces choice upon us. The one thing God longs\nfor is our choice, free and full choice. Freedom of choice is the image of\nGod in which every man is made. We are like Him in _power_, in the right\nto choose; we become like Him in _character_ when we choose only the\nright. God would lead us into opportunity for the choice on which\neverything else hinges. The prayer says: \"Lead us not into temptation.\"\nThe prayer becomes the choice. It reveals the decision of your heart. The\nman who thoughtfully makes the prayer makes the choice.\n\nAnd with that goes the \"no\" side. Certainly God would not lead us into the\ntemptation to do wrong.[67] And so He has made a way--it's a new way since\nour Lord Jesus was here--a way by which we can have the full opportunity\nfor choice, and yet be sure of always choosing the right, and so growing\ninto His image in character. To pray, \"Lead us not into temptation,\" is\npractically saying, \"I will go as Thou leadest. Lead me. I am willing to\nbe led. I was not ever thus, nor _prayed_ that Thou shouldst lead me on. I\nloved to choose and see my path, but now--but now, lead _Thou_ me on. Here\nI am, willing to be led. I put out my hands for Thee to grasp and lead\nwhere Thou wilt. I'll sing, 'Where He may Lead, I'll Follow.\" This is the\nonly safe road through the Wilderness. We yield wholly to His control.\n\nMay I say reverently, this was the way our Lord entered and passed through\nthe Wilderness, wholly under the control of Another--the Holy Spirit. He\nchose to yield to that control. The Spirit acted through His yielding\nconsent, and flooded in the power that brought the victory. Even He in His\npurity needs so to do. How much more we in our absence of purity, and so\nabsence of strength. \"Lead us not\" means practically, that we get in\nbehind this victorious Lord Jesus. We refuse to go alone.\n\nThe Wilderness spells only defeat for the man who goes alone. We must\nyield wholly to this great lone Man who went before. We lean upon Him. We\ntrust Him as Saviour from the sin that temptation yielded to has already\nbrought. We will trust His lead wholly now as temptation comes. We will\nstick close and be wholly pliant in His hands. This is the first\ntemptation prayer our Lord gives us. It means our utter surrender to His\nleadership.\n\nThen there is a second prayer for temptation use: \"Watch and pray that ye\n_enter not_ into temptation.\"[68] This goes with the other. It is the\npartner prayer. Be ever on the watch, and pray, that you may not _enter_\ninto temptation. Guard prayerfully against acting independently of your\nLeader. Watch against the temptation. Watch yourself lest you be inclined\nto go off alone, to break away from His lead. For there will be only one\nresult then, defeat. These two prayers together show the way to turn\ntemptation into victory,--\"lead not,\" \"enter not.\" A temptation is a\nchance for a victory if you never meet it alone, but always under the lead\nof the great Victor of the Wilderness.\n\nThen it may help to put the thing in another way. There are two steps in\nvictory over temptation. The first is recognition. To recognize that the\nthing coming for decision is a temptation to something wrong,--that's the\nfirst step in victory. It pushes the temptation out into the open. You say\nplainly, \"This is something to be resisted.\" The second step as you set\nyourself to resist is to plead the blood of the Lord Jesus. That means\npleading His victory over the tempter. That's the getting in behind Him\nand depending wholly upon Him.\n\n\"Follow Me\" takes us into the Wilderness, and leads us into victory there.\nThere we will learn more about prayer, and music, and the Master, and get\nnew strength and courage on this stretch of the valley road.\n\n\n\nGethsemane.\n\n\nAt the farther extreme of the service years, there came to the Lord Jesus\nthe other three of these dark experiences, all three close together. On\nthe night of the betrayal came _the Gethsemane Agony_. That was a very\nfull evening. Around the supper table they had gathered and talked, and\nthe Lord Jesus had made His last, tender but fruitless effort to touch\nJudas' heart by touching his feet. There was the long quiet heart-talk in\nthe supper room after Judas had gone out, \"and it was night\" for poor\nJudas.[69]\n\nThen the talk continued as they walked across the city within view of the\ngreat brass vine on Herod's temple, so beautiful in the light of the full\nmoon. And then, as they walk through the narrow, shadowed streets, the\nshadows come into the Lord Jesus' spirit and words.[70] Now they are\noutside the wall of the city, out in the open, under the blue, and with\nupturned face, the great pleading prayer is breathed out.[71] Now they are\nacross the Kidron, and now in among the shadows of the huge olive trees of\nthe garden called Gethsemane.\n\nIt's quite dark and late. He leaves the disciples to rest under the\ntrees, and with the inner three He pushes a bit farther on. And now He\npushes on quite alone in the farther lone recesses of the woods. And now\nthe intensity of His spirit bends His body as He kneels, then is\nprostrate. And the agony is upon Him. He is fighting out the battle of the\nmorrow. He is sinless, but on the morrow He is to get under the load of a\nworld's sin; no, it was yet more than that, He was to be Himself reckoned\nand dealt with as sin itself. All the horror of that broke upon Him under\nthose trees, more intensely than it had yet. The brightness of the full\nmoon made the shadows of the trees very dark and black, but they seemed as\nnothing to this awful inky black shadow of the sin load that would come,\nno longer in shadow but actually, on the morrow.\n\nThe agony of it is upon Him as He falls prostrate on the ground, under the\ntense strain of spirit. Out of the struggle a bit of prayer reaches our\nawed ears, \"_If it be possible_ let this cup pass away from Me; yet not as\nI will, but as Thou wilt.\" And so tense is the strain that an angel comes\nto strengthen. With what reverent touch must he have given his help. Even\nafter that the great drops of bloody sweat came. But now a calmer mood\ncomes. The look full in the face of what was coming, the realizing more\nclearly how the Father's plan must work out, these help to steady Him.\nAgain a bit of prayer is heard, \"Since this cannot pass away; since only\nso can Thy plan for the world be accomplished Thy--will--be--done.\" The\nload of the world's sin almost broke His heart that dark night under the\nolives. It actually did break His heart on the morrow. This is the meaning\nof Gethsemane, intense suffering of spirit because of the sin of others.\n\nAnd at first thought you say, surely there can be no following for any of\nus in this sore lonely experience of His. And there cannot. He was alone\nthere as on the morrow. None of us can go through what He went through\nthere. For, it was _for us_, and for our sin that He went through it. And\nyet there _is_ a following, if different in degree and in depth of\nmeaning, yet a very real following. While Gethsemane stands a lone\nexperience for Jesus, yet there will be _a_ Gethsemane for him who follows\nfully where He asks us to go.\n\nThere will be a real suffering of spirit because of the sin of others. We\nwill see the world around us through those pure, seeing eyes of His. We\nwill _feel_ the ravages of sin in those we touch, with something of the\nfeeling of His heart. Close walking with Christ brings pain and it will\nbring it more, and more acutely. We will see sin as He does, in part. We\nwill feel with our fellow-men toiling in its grip and snare as He did, in\npart. There will be sore suffering of spirit. This is the Gethsemane\nexperience, and it will not grow less but more.\n\n    \"'O God,' I cried, 'why may I not forget?\n    These halt and hurt in life's hard battle\n        Throng me yet.\n    Am I their keeper? Only I? To bear\n    This constant burden of their grief and care?\n    Why must I suffer for the others' sin?\n    Would God my eyes had never opened been!'\n\n    And the Thorn-crowned and Patient One\n    Replied, '_They thronged Me too. I too have seen_.'\n\n    'But, Lord, Thy other children go at will,'\n        I said, protesting still.\n    'They go, unheeding. But these sick and sad,\n    These blind and orphan, yea and those that sin\n    Drag at my heart. For them I serve and groan.\n    Why is it? Let me rest, Lord. I _have_ tried--'\n\n    He turned and looked at me:\n        '_But I have died_!'\n\n    'But, Lord, this ceaseless travail of my soul!\n    This stress! This often fruitless toil\n    These souls to win!\n    They are not mine. I brought not forth this host\n    Of needy creatures, struggling, tempest-tossed--\n        They are not _mine_.'\n\n    He looked at them--the look of One divine;\n    He turned and looked at me. '_But they are mine_!'\n\n    'O God, I said, 'I understand at last.\n    Forgive! And henceforth I will bond-slave be\n    To thy least, weakest, vilest ones;\n    I would not more be free.'\n\n    He smiled and said,\n        '_It is to me_.'\"[72]\n\nThe word Gethsemane has not been used accurately sometimes. And it is not\ngood that it is so, for it keeps us from appreciating what the real\nmeaning is. In poetry and otherwise it has been used for some great\nexperience of sorrow in which the soul has struggled alone. But there are\ntwo things in the Gethsemane experience that give it a meaning quite\ndifferent from such. The Gethsemane sorrow is on account of the sin of\nothers, _and_ it comes to us through our own consent, of our own action.\nWe need not go through the Gethsemane experience save as we make the\nchoice that comes to include this. It is only as we _choose_ to follow\nfully, close up to His bleeding side, where the Lord Jesus is leading,\nthat this experience of pain will come.\n\nMoses knew what this meant. As he came from the presence of God in the\nmount the sin of the people seemed so terrible, that the fear that\npossibly it could not be forgiven unless he made some sacrifice sweeps\nover him and came out as a great sob.[73] The sight of their sin brought\nsorest pain to his spirit. Paul tells us there was a continual cutting of\na knife at his heart because of his racial kinsfolk, their sin, their\nstubbornness in sin, the awful blight upon their lives.[74] There was\nsore, lone, unspeakable pain of spirit because he felt so keenly the sin\nof others. This is the Gethsemane experience. Have you felt something like\nthis as you have come in touch with the sin, the blighted lives, the\nwreckage of lives among both poor and rich, lower class and better? You\nwill if you follow where He leads.\n\n\n\nCalvary.\n\n\nThen came the morrow. _The experience of Calvary_ came hard on the heels\nof Gethsemane. The pain of spirit became both pain of body and pain of\nspirit, intensified clear beyond what the night before had anticipated.\nHow shall I trust myself to speak of that morrow, or you to listen? Yet,\nlet us hold still, and, for a great purpose, look at it again, if only for\na moment, that the meaning of it, the flame of it may take fresh hold, and\nconsume us anew.\n\nGethsemane was followed by a sleepless night, while bitter hate brought\nits utmost iniquity and persistence to hound this Man to death. Nine, of\nthe next morning, found Him hanging, nailed on the cross, crowned with the\ncruel mocking thorn crown. From nine till three He hung, while the strange\ndarkness came down over all nature from noon till three, the blackness of\nmidnight shutting out the brightness of noon. The Father's presence was\nwithdrawn. This tells the bitterness of the cross for Jesus as does\nnothing else.\n\nIt was out of a breaking heart that the cry was wrung, \"My God, My God,\nwhy didst _Thou_ forsake Me?\" When you can penetrate that darkness you may\nbe able to tell how really Jesus took our place, and suffered as sin for\nus,--not before. Then with a great shout of victory He gave up His life.\nHis great heart broke. He died. He died literally of a broken heart. The\nwalls of that muscle were burst asunder by the terrific strain on His\nspirit.\n\n_He died for us_. He who so easily held off the murderous mob with their\nstones, now holds Himself to that cross,--_for us_. This is the Calvary\nexperience. It can be felt, but never explained fully; words fail. It can\nbe yielded to until our hearts are melted to sobs, but never fully told in\nits tenderness and strength to others. It can bring us down on knees and\nface at His feet as His love-slaves for ever,--so is its story best told\nto others. That breaking heart breaks ours. That pierced side pierces\nthrough all our stubborn resistance. That face haunts us. Its scars tell\nof sin, ours. Its patient eyes tell of love, His. Was there ever such sin?\nWas there ever such love? Was there ever such a meeting of sin and purity,\nof love and hate, of God's best and Satan's worst?\n\nSurely there can be no following _here_! And, strange to say, the answer\nis both a \"no,\" with a double underscoring of emphasis, and a \"yes,\" that\nwill come to have a like emphatic underlining. _No_, there can be no\nfollowing. Here, He is the Lone Man who went before. And He remains the\nLone Man in what He did, and in the extent of His suffering. There is only\none Calvary. There was only the One whose death could settle the sin score\nfor us men. It is only by His death for our sin that there is any way out\nof our sore plight of sin, and sin's own result. There the Lord Jesus did\nsomething that had to be done, for the Father's sake; there He broke the\nslavery of our sin; there He broke our hearts by His love. There He stands\nutterly alone in what He did. Calvary has no duplicate, nor ever can have.\nThat is the emphatic \"no\" side of the answer. There can be no following on\nthat road.\n\nAnd yet,--and yet, there can be. There is a \"yes\" side to the true, full\nanswer. There will be a Calvary experience for every one who really\nfollows. His was _the_ Calvary experience, ours is _a_ Calvary experience.\nIt does not mean what His meant for the world. But it enters into the\nmarrow of our very being, and means everything to us. It means that as I\nreally follow there will come to me experiences of sacrifice that will\ntake the very life of my life--_if_ I do not pull back, but persist on\nfollowing the beckoning hand. And it means too, that there will be in a\nsecondary, a minor sense, a redemptive value in my suffering. That\nsuffering will be a real thing in completing the work of some man's\nredemption.\n\nListen to Paul. He has been writing to the Corinthian Christians in much\ndetail, of the suffering he has been going through of both body and\nspirit, and then he adds, \"_so then death working in me worketh life in\nyou_.\"[75] The same thought underlies that wonderful bit of tender,\ntactful pleading in the eleventh and twelfth chapters of the same letter.\nThe same thing is put in a rather startling way in the epistle to the\nColossians,[76] \"I ... fill up on my part, in my flesh, _that which is\nlacking_ of the afflictions of Christ for His body's sake, which is the\nChurch.\"\n\nThis fits in with the thought in that word \"began\" in the beginning of the\nbook of Acts.[77] In a very real sense our Lord depends upon our faithful\nfollowing to supplement among men the great thing which only He could do.\nPaul knew _a_ Calvary experience, and Peter and John, and so has, and\nwill, every one who follows the pierced hand that beckons. Ask Horace\nTracey Pitkin at Paotingfu if he understands this. And the China soil wet\nwith his blood gives answer, and so do the lives of those who were won to\nChrist through such suffering throughout China. Ask David Livingstone away\nin the inner heart of Africa, and those whom no man can number in every\nnation, who have known this sort of thing by a bitter, sweet experience,\nsome by violence, some by the yet more difficult daily giving out of the\nlife in hidden away corners.\n\n\n\nThe Underground Road.\n\n\nAnd hard following this came _the Burial in Joseph's Tomb_. \"Christ died\nfor our sins and ... He was buried.\"[78] \"Joseph took the body, ... and\nlaid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock, and he\nrolled a great stone to the door of the tomb.\"[79] \"The chief priests and\nthe Pharisees ... went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone,\nthe guard (of Roman soldiers) being with them.\"[80]\n\nOut of that sealed tomb comes with the emphasis of action, the emphasis of\ndeath, this word, \"except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die,\nit abideth by itself alone.\"[81] The only pathway of life is the\nunderground road. For our Lord, Joseph's tomb made the death clear beyond\ndoubt. The tomb was the climax of the death. He was dead and buried. For\nhim who follows it means this, _a burial clear out of sight in the soil of\nthe need of men's lives_. He who simply gets in behind and faithfully\nfollows will find himself actually being buried in the needs of men. And\nonly where there is such a burial can there come resurrection power into\nthe life.\n\nI remember a friend in Philadelphia, a young man who resigned an\ninfluential position to go out as a missionary in India. And another\nfriend not at all in sympathy remarked sneeringly in my hearing, \"He's\ngone to bury himself in India.\" He spoke more aptly than he knew. The\nyears since have told what a blessed burial that was. For scores of lives\nin Southern India have known the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus\nthrough his service.\n\nDo you remember when the Greeks came to Philip with their great plea,\n\"Sir, we would see Jesus\"?[82] Whether really from Greece, or\nGreek-speaking people from elsewhere, or simply non-Jewish people, they\nrepresented the outer, non-Jewish world coming to Jesus. The Jew door was\nslammed violently in His face, but here was the great outer-world door\nopening. And He had come to a world! But instantly, across the vision so\nattractive to His eyes, there came another vision, never absent from His\nspirit those last weeks, the vision black and forbidding, of _a cross_.\nAnd He knew that only through this vision of a cross could the vision of a\nworld coming be realized. And out of the sore stress of spirit, that for a\nfew brief moments shook Him, came the quietly spoken, tense words, \"Except\na grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone.\"\n\nThe road to Greece is not over the sea here to the west, not the overland\ncaravan route up north through Asia Minor; it is the road down through\nJoseph's tomb. That was true for Him. It was by that road that He so\nmarvellously reached the Greeks and all the world. And this is true for\nus. It is only by this road that we can reach out to the crowds with the\nreach-in that touches heart and life.\n\nThese are the four experiences of suffering and sacrifice. This is the\ndip-down in the \"Follow Me\" road where it runs through a darkly shadowed\nvalley. These are the dark and red shuttle-threads being woven into the\nweb, by repeated sharp blows of the batten-beam. These are the minor\nchords that, coming up through the strains of music, give a peculiar\nsweetness to it.\n\n\n\nWhat Is Sacrifice?\n\n\nNow you will note that the chief thing in all this is _sacrifice_. The\nchief thing in all of our Lord's life, clear from Bethlehem to Calvary and\nthe tomb, was sacrifice. It runs ever throughout; it finds its tremendous\nclimax in the cross. And the word to put in here in quietest tone--the\nquietest is tensest, and goes in deepest--the word is this: _Following\nmeans sacrifice_. It means sacrifice as really for the follower as for the\nLone Man ahead.\n\nThat word \"sacrifice\" has practically been dropped out of the dictionary\nof the Christian Church of the western world. It has not been wholly lost.\nThere is much real sacrifice, no doubt, under the surface. But, in the\nmain, it is one of the lost words in our generation of the Church. We are\nrich, and increased in goods, and have need of nothing that we cannot\nprovide by the lavish use of money; so we think. And the loss of that word\nexplains the loss from our working dictionaries of another word, _power_.\nFor the two words always go together.\n\nBut please note what sacrifice means. For we may get confused in the use\nof words, and like the Hebrews in Isaiah's day call things by the wrong\nnames.[83] Sacrifice does not merely mean suffering, though there may be\nmuch suffering included in it. But there may be suffering where there is\nno sacrifice. It does not mean privation, though there may be real painful\nprivation in it. But again there may be much privation and pain without\nany element of sacrifice entering in.\n\nThe heart of sacrifice is that it is voluntary, and that it really costs\nyou something. It is something that would not come to you unless you\ndecide to let it come. It is wholly within your power to keep it away, and\nit brings with it real pain or cost of some kind. Sacrifice means doing\nsomething, or doing without something, that so help may come to another,\neven though it costs you some real personal suffering of spirit, or of\nbody, or both, or lack of what you should have and would enjoy.\n\nAnd please note that sacrifice is _not_ the key-note of the \"Follow Me\"\nlife. We are not to seek for sacrifice. Perhaps that is quite a needless\nremark. We are not likely to seek for it. No one loves a cross any more\nthan did Peter, when he had the hardiness to rebuke his Master.[84] And\nyet we remember those earnest souls in earlier times, who shut themselves\nup behind monastic walls, and inflicted pain upon themselves by privation\nand by bodily self-infliction. And we cannot help admiring their\nearnestness and saintliness, even while we see how morbid was their\nconception of life, and how completely they got the true order reversed.\nAnd there can be found some here and there, among us to-day, with the same\nidea.\n\nBut the key-note of the true life is not sacrifice. It is obedience.\nSacrifice is something coming in the pathway of obedience. There come the\nplaces and times where you cannot obey without making a sacrifice.\nObedience involves sacrifice. And the sacrifice may be of the very real,\ncutting, hurting sort, personally. The whole instinct of one's being is\nagainst it. This seems to be carrying things quite too far, we think. And\nso the test is on. The sacrifice is not sought. It is shrunk from with all\nthe vigour of one's nature. Obedience means that you go steadily on, no\nmatter how it cuts, or how much it costs.\n\nAnd the motive under the obedience is usually the decisive thing. If that\nmotive be a personal passion for the Lord Jesus, then you only wait long\nenough to be quite clear of His leading, of what He would have you do. And\nthen you go on, regardless of the personal loss or pain to yourself. The\nkey-note of the \"Follow Me\" music is obedience, simple, sane, poised, full\nobedience.\n\n\n\nHow Much It Cost God.\n\n\nOne day out in Illinois, while visiting a small church college, I was told\nthis story of one of the students. He had felt very deeply the need of the\nforeign mission lands, and the plea being made for men to volunteer to go\nout as missionaries. And after much thought and prayer he had decided to\nvolunteer. But he felt he must first get his mother's consent. So he wrote\nof his purpose and asked if she were willing that he should go. In due\ntime the reply came back. It was a mother's letter to her son, full of a\nmother's endearments. But the paper was marked with tear-stains. She gave\nher consent. She said, \"I'm glad my boy wants to go, and I'm glad to have\nyou go, but\"--and here the writing was blurred with the teardrops that had\nplainly fallen as she wrote--\"_I never knew before how much it cost God to\ngive His Son_.\"\n\nThere was the whole story of sacrifice as it came to that mother. There\nwas the sore need of the people in foreign lands for the Gospel of Christ.\nThat need had not been met. The need in its sore pressure had become an\nemergency, largely an unappreciated emergency. The tragedy of an unmet\nemergency had moved the son's heart to action, under the touch of the Holy\nSpirit, and then it came to the mother's heart. The decision rested with\nher. Her inner heart told her the Master's desire. She obeyed, with\nexquisite pain in her heart over the separation, maybe separation for\nlife, from her son. The key-note is obedience, even though it may mean\ncutting pain.\n\nThe whole test of love and of life is in sacrifice yielded to as the need\nmay come. In God's first plan of life there is no sacrifice. God never\nchooses sacrifice as His first choice for any one, not even for His Son.\nBut sin is here, an abnormal, foreign thing. Life is shot through and\nthrough with its ugly markings. You can't go a foot's length down the\npathway of obedience without finding the keen edge of a knife, freshly\nsharpened, held across the path with its cutting edge toward you,\nchallenging your advance, doing its utmost to hold you back.\n\nAnd only as the breast is bared to the cutting until a bit of your red\nlife stains the knife, only so can there be any of the power of God in, or\nthrough, or out of, your life. But turn that sentence around, and smile in\nyour heart as you remember this, as you do push quietly on past the\ncutting knife, and say never a word about the knife or the sharp pain--the\nbest folks never talk about their sacrifices, they are too intent on the\nMan just ahead,--as a man so does, there come into his life a fire and a\nfragrance that burns and breathes out wherever he goes.\n\nIt is sin that makes sacrifice. Sin did the carpenter work on the cross,\nour sin. Sin grew the thorns, and then served as weaver to make the\nmocking, cutting crown--our sin, yours and mine. Love yields to the\nsacrifice, His love for us, His love in us for the others. Sin is\neverywhere. Its finger-print is in nature, and its scar on human life. And\nsin's ravages make cruel need, and need intensified makes emergency, and\nthese involve sacrifice as we rise to meet need and emergency.\n\nAnd love is everywhere. That is, it would be, it will be, if it can find\nhuman feet to carry it. It will be if our Lord may have His way. Sacrifice\nis Love's healing shadow. Sacrifice is love giving the oil and wine of its\nown life to bind up the wounds that sin has made. The \"Follow Me\" road is\nmarked red, so you trace His footprints who went ahead, and theirs who\nfollow.\n\n\n\nWhat Obedience Has Meant for Some.\n\n\nBut, no one can decide for another what obedience may mean for him. You\nmay not tell me, nor I you. It is intensely interesting to note what\nobedience has meant to some. It led Paul to give up inheritance and family\nprestige, social standing, fellowship in university circles, a home life\nof scholarly quiet and research, and to be reproached and ostracized, to\nbe homeless having no certain abiding place, dependent on his own hands\nfor daily bread, as he went burning like a flame from end to end of the\nRoman world. And at the end it meant a prison, and block and axe.\n\nI met a rare Christian nobleman in London, of an old, honoured family, of\nwhom a friend told me this. This nobleman had a large inheritance. Among\nother things a certain estate. He felt led to place the estate on the\nmarket, get the best possible return for it, and then with his shrewd\nbusiness sense, prayerfully to place the proceeds where he felt they would\nhelp best the cause of Christ. And to a friend who expressed appreciation\nand approval of such unusual action, he quietly said, \"I want no praise\nfor this; if the poor Jew had to give one-tenth, surely a rich Christian\ncan do very much more.\" That was what obedience, at that point, meant to\nhim.\n\nI knew a Canadian woman who had been led to a higher level in her\nChristian life. A friend put into her hands a bit of manuscript, to which\nshe had access, thinking it would help her in her new life. The manuscript\nwas read, and returned through the friend to its writer. He had intended\nhaving it published with some others, if a publisher could be found\nwilling to accept it. Then he had felt that he would do nothing with it\nuntil very clear leading came. He did not want to do anything, except as\nhe was led. If the Master wanted to use the writing, it was there if He\nchose to give the word for its use.\n\nSometime after as the woman was busy with her nursing work she was on\nnight duty, and had her quiet time in an interval of the night's round. As\nshe was reading her Bible and praying, she said, \"A voice said to me very\nquietly, 'Send Mr. Blank twenty-five dollars to publish ----'\" [naming\nthe title of the article she had read]. Twenty-five dollars taken out of\nher frugal savings would leave quite a hole. But the impression that came\nwith the message was unmistakable. And so the money was sent. And it was\nreceived by the writer of the manuscript as the Master's answer for which\nhe had been waiting. And that was the beginning of some little books whose\nmessages have been graciously used to bring help to many lives. Her bit of\nobedience was a link in the chain, and so a bit of her life is in the\nprinted messages the Master has been using. The tracing of red was on the\ngold, and on the messages sent out. That was what obedience meant that\ntime to her. And obedience usually has its hardest time when its struggle\nis over a bit of gold.\n\nA friend took us driving one day up in Scotland, and told this story as we\npassed through a beautiful estate. A few generations back it belonged to\none who followed fully. And in response to the clear inner leading the\nestate was sold, and the proceeds used in sending the message of a\ncrucified, risen Christ, out to the farther ends of the earth.\n\nIt was at the same time that a like incident came personally to me of\nanother Scottish friend of our Lord Jesus. The beckoning call was so\ndistinct, and the answering need so clear in its echo, that he planned a\nmoderate annuity for the remainder of his life, and loosed out all the\nrest of his wealth on the same sort of errand. I do not say you should do\nsomething of this sort. And you may not tell me what I shall do. Only the\nMaster has that privilege. But we can urge each other to have trained\nears, and soft heart, and obedient will; ears for what the Master is\nsaying, a heart softened by the warmth of His, a will gladly obedient to\nHis slightest wish.\n\n\n\nNecessity--Luxury.\n\n\nAnd our Lord Jesus speaks very distinctly, though so quietly. His meaning\nis unmistakably plain to listening ears. He is quite apt to take you off\nfor a little walk and talk. What kind of a house do you live in? What\nproportion of your income do you spend on yourself? What is in those\nsafety-deposit boxes? How much would it mean to Him if your signature at\nthe bottom of legal papers put some property at His disposal? Take a look\nthrough your wardrobe; who and what controls there? No, I'm not talking\nabout money, nor about missions, only about a personal passion for the\nLord Jesus, and about the passion _in_ Him for His world.\n\n\"But,\" you say to yourself, \"there's danger of going to extremes here, is\nthere not?\" Yes, there is; you are quite right. Extremes are bad, we\nshould be on our guard against them. There is nothing more desirable in\nthese days than sane, poised judgment, a sound mind. And be it keenly\nmarked that the man who is really swayed by the Holy Spirit is peculiarly\na sane, well-balanced man. That is one mark of the Spirit's presence.\n\nYet there's more to be said. _Our Lord Jesus went to extremes_. He went to\na great extreme on the cross, did He not? Is there any extreme like that\nof Gethsemane? and Calvary? It is because He went to such extremes, and\nthe West knows about it, that the West is so radically different from the\nEast, and that you and I are redeemed from the slavery of sin, with a\nsweet peace in our hearts, and so much happiness in our lives.\n\nThe distressing thing is that there is so much of going to extremes. Go\nthrough the Christian homes of the western world to-day, and you find home\nappointments, wardrobes, safety-deposit boxes, bank books, title deeds,\nall spelling out one word, spelled in capital letters, EXTREMES. But that\nkey-note, named several times already, gives the only safe\nway--_obedience_. We need to be on our guard, not so much lest we go to\nextremes at either extreme, but that we _obey_ our Lord Jesus. That, and\nthat only, leads to the wise, well-balanced judgment and action. Obedience\nto Him means true sanity.\n\nWhere do you draw the deciding line between necessity and luxury? How do\nyou define those two words? What is necessity? And what is luxury? Simple\ndefinitions help much in getting clear ideas. The dictionary says, a\nnecessity is something you must have. And a luxury, in its root meaning,\nis an extravagance, something \"wandering beyond the proper boundary.\" The\ntrouble is to know how to draw the line when it comes to one's own\naffairs. There is such a big difference between what you want and what you\nneed. And often we don't want to go into such distinctions. They might\nbother our consciences a bit. It seems difficult to keep one's poise in\nsuch things. Some godly people go to extremes in not providing\nsufficiently for real needs. Most of us go to the other extreme. Where\ndoes the true dividing line come in?\n\nWell, I think you can say truly that _whatever keeps up and adds to your\nstrength_ can properly be called _a necessity_. All beyond that line is\nluxury. It is the part of wisdom to provide carefully and well for\nnecessities. Luxury is _bad_, for it really saps our strength. It makes a\nman less vigorous in every way. And yet more can be said. The question of\nneed comes in. Luxury is wrong because of the crying need of men for what\nthe money spent in luxury would bring to them. I think chiefly now of the\nneed of their lives for what can come only through a knowledge of Christ.\nThe bitter cry of the common people against Louis XVI, at the time of the\nFrench Revolution, was that the royal family lived on the costliest\ndelicacies while many of the common people were actually starving. They\nthought that was the chief crime to be expiated at the guillotine.\n\nWhat is necessary for one's strength moves on a sliding scale. As years\ncome, and the sort of work one does and his strength change, his needs\nincrease. What might at one time have been reckoned luxury is now a real\nnecessity for his best strength and work. _Whatever ministers to one's\nstrength is a necessity_. All above this becomes luxury, and so is both\nhurtful to strength, and wrong in itself.\n\nA missionary returning to his home-land, on furlough, noted on his first\nreturn home that what had been considered luxuries before he left, were\nnow reckoned necessities; on his second furlough he noted again that what\nhad been reckoned luxury on his first return was now counted necessity.\nAnd each return home found this condition repeating itself.\n\nIt reminded me of the experience of Sir John Franklin in one of his Arctic\nexplorations. His ship was hemmed in by an ice-field so that progress was\nimpossible. All he could do was to calculate his longitude and latitude,\nand wait. The next day he was still hemmed in, and so far as he could see,\nwas exactly where he had been on the previous day. But on calculating\nlongitude and latitude again, he was surprised to find that the ship had\ndrifted several miles backward from the position of the previous day.\n\nIt would be a sensible thing for us to make frequent calculations, and\nfind out where we are, and prayerfully steer a changed course if we've\nbeen drifting. But we can't decide such questions for each other, and they\ncan't be decided by what another does. They can only be decided alone on\none's knees with the Master, with the Book, and perhaps a map of the world\nat hand. We need both the Word of God, and a view of the world of God to\nshape our judgment. No, it's not a question of money primarily, nor of\nmissions, only of personal loyalty to our Lord Jesus, and to the passion\nof His heart.\n\n\n\nGrafted.\n\n\nHave you noticed the significance of that word \"abide\" which our Lord used\non the night of His betrayal?[85] \"Abide\" means a grafting process; we\nwere branches in the vine, but we were broken off by sin. The only way to\nabide in that vine is by being grafted in. \"Abide\" means grafted. But the\ngrafting process has two wounds. It means a knife used twice. It means a\nwound in the vine-stock, and our Master flinched not there. It means\nlikewise a wound in the branch to be grafted in. Just as surely as the\nknife must make the incision into the stock, it must also cut the end of\nthe branch before it can be grafted in. Our Master flinched not. How about\nyou and me when it comes to the knife, with its sharp cutting edge, and\nslash and sting?\n\nPerhaps this explains why there's so little life, so little sap-flow, so\nlittle fruit. If you follow along the narrow road your progress is sure\nto be barred by a knife thrust out across the path. And the whole\ninstinct of our nature is to shrink from the knife. The sacrificial knife\nbecomes the pruning, the grafting knife. There can be no life without that\nknife. Failure to obey cuts off the supply of life.\n\nI became greatly interested in a young man whom I met in Japan. He comes\nof a noble, wealthy family. He attended a mission school to study English,\nlearned to read the Bible, became intensely interested, and then decided\nto become a Christian. But his family was violently opposed, and pleaded\nearnestly with him. He would in time be the head of his family, but if he\ninsisted now on being a Christian he would be disowned. He was to be\ntrained in the Imperial University, and could have chosen a public\nnational career including the probability of membership in the Imperial\ndiet, but he remained true to his decision. And he was disowned in\ndisgrace, cast adrift without a cent. Now he is devoting himself to\nmission work in the city where I met him, working among the neediest and\nlowest. I was told that the police gladly say that his mission has greater\npower than they in preserving order in that worst quarter of the city.\n\nThe night I stood by his side, speaking through his interpretation, a\nJapanese policeman dragged up a couple of youths who had been giving\ntrouble, and pushed them in, saying, \"Here's the place for you; now listen\nto that.\" And I have never been in a simple service where the quiet\nintense power of God was more marked. This is what obedience meant to him.\nAnd this too is what abiding meant. He yielded to the grafting knife, and\nthe life of the vine-stock came flowing freely through, bearing abundant\nfruit.\n\nA few years ago I read a simple story in \"The Sunday-school Times\" that\nbrought a lump in my throat. The writer told of a south-bound train\nstopping at a station near Washington City. At the last moment, an old\nnegro with white hair came hurriedly forward and clambered on the last\ncoach as the train pulled out. He was very black, and very dusty, and\nsingle occupants of seats looked apprehensive as he shuffled along looking\nfor a seat. But he did not offer to intrude, but stood at the end of the\ncar, looking with big wondering eyes down the car. He was evidently very\ntired. Then a young man offered him space in his seat, for which he seemed\nvery grateful, and with child-like simplicity began talking.\n\nHe was going back home \"to Georgy\"; had been up in Virginia for years with\nthe rare old slave loyalty serving his old master between times, while\nearning his own way. Now his master was dead and he was going back down to\nthe old home state, \"back to Georgy,\" and the words came softly, while his\nhand tenderly patted the seat cushion. Clearly Georgia was the acme of\nhappiness and content for him. As the train boy came through, the young\nman bought some sandwiches for the old negro. He was very grateful. Yes,\nhe _was_ hungry, and had walked several miles to get the train. He\ncouldn't spend money for \"victuals\"; \"money's too skase fur buying things\non the road,\" he said, \"I was 'lowin' ter fill up arter I done reach\nGeorgy.\"\n\nThen the conductor came in for tickets. The black man anxiously fumbled\nthrough one pocket after another, and finally remembered that his ticket\nwas pinned to the lining of his hat. \"Done tuk ebery cent I could scrape\nup to get dat ticket,\" he said, \"but dat's all right. I kin wuk, an' fo'ks\ndon' need money when dey's home.\" The conductor had passed on to the next\nseat behind. There sat a shabbily dressed woman, with anxious,\nfrightened-looking face, the seat full of bundles and a pale-faced baby in\narms.\n\n\"Tickets, please.\"\n\nThe woman's face flushed red, and then grew white and set, as she said, \"I\nhaven't any.\"\n\n\"Have to get off then; save me the trouble of putting you off.\"\n\nThe woman sprang up with terror in her big eyes, \"Don't put me off; my\nhusband's dying; the doctor said he must go South; we've sold everything\nleft to send him; now he's dying; I must go to him. But I have no money,\ndon't put me off. My God--my God--if you--\" Her plea poured out in\nexcited, jerky sentences. But the conductor could do nothing. He must obey\nhis instructions, or be discharged. The woman sank back sobbing, in the\nseat. The conductor turned back to get the old negro's ticket.\n\n\"I'se feared you'll have to put _me_ off, boss,\" he said humbly, \"don't\nexpect a pore ole nigger like me to raise enuf fur a ticket.\" The\nconductor harshly ordered him off the train at the next station, saying\nthere was some excuse for the poor woman, but none for him. The train\nbegan to slow up for the station. The old negro quietly dropped his ticket\ninto the lap of the woman, saying, \"Here's yo' ticket, missus. I do hopes\nyo' find dat husban' o' yourn ain' so bad as yo'se afeared.\" And before\nher dazed eyes could take in what he was doing, the old man had shuffled\nout of the car, and as the train pulled on he was seen quietly plodding\nalong, still \"bound for Georgy.\"\n\nAnd there was no mention of Christ in the story, but one who knows the old\ntypical slave class to which he belongs needs not to be told of the motive\ndown in his heart. That's what obedience, unanalyzed, undeliberated about,\nmeant to him. Have you ever worn the \"Georgy\" shoes? Have you ever tramped\nto \"Georgy\"? If some of us might find out the old man's cobbler and get\nsome \"Georgy\" tramping shoes! The way of obedience is a way of sacrifice.\n\n\n\n\n4. The Hilltops--Experiences of Gladness and Glory\n\n\n\nValley Music.\n\n\nThere was a third group of experiences in our Lord Jesus' life. But it\nwill be good for us to remember that the third comes after the second.\nThere can be no third until there has been a second. It is impossible to\ntake first and third and omit the second. The third can come only after\nthe second. There can be experiences of gladness and glory only to him who\nfollows all the way. The hilltop experiences come after going down through\nthe valley. And there is no way of reaching the hills except through the\nvalley.\n\nBut there is a hilltop roadway of exhilarating air and outlook for him who\nhas been through the valley. The valley is only part of the way. There are\nheights, too, as well as depths. And if the depths have seemed very deep,\nyet remember the valley depth tells how high the height is. The only way\nup is down. And you go as high up as you have gone down, and then a bit\nhigher. For you started down from the level of the main road, and you go\nup above the level. But you go up higher than you go down. The hilltops\nare higher above the main road than the valley is below. The glory comes\nto be more than the sacrifice.\n\nSacrifice is only one-half of a chapter, the first half; there is a second\nhalf, the musical half. There's a wondrous singing in the heart, even\nwhile the knife is cutting, such as only he knows who goes this way.\nThere's a breeze from the hilltops that comes sweeping down through the\ntrees, while you are slowly picking your way along the rough, narrow\nvalley road. That breeze plays upon your inner strings and makes rare\nAEolian melody. It is the breeze of God playing upon the heart-strings of\nyour soul. But _this_ music is heard only in _this_ valley road. Lovers of\nmusic say there is nothing to compare with it.\n\nYou remember the words, \"who for the _joy_ that was set before Him.\"[86]\nAh, the joy! As the Master's feet slipped down into the dark shadows--the\nshame, the cross, the tomb--there was something else under the pain He was\nsuffering. There was a low underchording of sweet minor music, the\nrhythmic swinging of His will with His Father's. And that music still sang\nas He slipped down quite out of sight under the cold waters of the river\nat the bottom of the gorge.\n\n\n\nThe Transfiguration Mount.\n\n\nThere were three of these glory experiences in our Lord's life, with a\nfourth one yet to come. Midway in the last year came _the Transfiguration\nMount_. In a sore emergency, for the sake of the leaders of His little\nband of disciples, the inner glory of His being was allowed to shine out\nthrough His humanity. The glory of God shined out from within Him. The\nusual fashion of His countenance was altered by the dazzling beauty-light\nshining out through it.\n\nAnd this too will be true of those who follow truly. As we live with our\nfaces ever held open to Him, the glory of His face will be reflected in\nours, and we shall be changed more and more into His image.[87] I have\nfrequently told the story of the jurist who lived in our middle-west\ncountry two generations ago, a confirmed but honest sceptic, and who was\nconverted by the _face_ of a fellow townsman. The sceptic became\nthoroughly convinced that the thing in his neighbour's face which so\nattracted him was his Christian faith, and it was this that led the\nsceptic to accept Christ. Last year, I met out in the Orient a kinswoman\nof the man with the convincing face.\n\nI remember distinctly one night, years ago, in northern Missouri, a young\nwoman waited at the close of a meeting with her friend. We talked and\nprayed together and she made the great decision. I can remember looking\nafter the two as they went out, wondering to myself how much it meant to\nher. I could not judge from her demeanour. But the next night they were\nback again, and instantly I knew that it had meant much, everything, to\nher. The transfiguring peace was upon her face. I would have called her\nface plain the evening before. Now it was really beautiful in the sweet\nclear light shining out of it.\n\nTwo things stand out sharply in my memory of Ping Yang, in Korea. One is\nthe visit to the home of a Christian family, whose head was one of those\nbeing held in prison in the famous conspiracy case. I still feel the\npathos of face and voice as the dear old mother, and the gentle wife,\nasked so eagerly, \"When will he be back?\"\n\nThe other, was the faces of certain of the women in the church service\nthere. I found myself time and again turning to look at their faces as I\nwas speaking. There was a sweet light that transfigured their worn faces,\nand gave them a real beauty. It was the more striking against the\nbackground of the faces one sees in those Oriental lands.\n\nThe story has been told in various ways of the European artist sent to a\nSalvation Army meeting to make a caricature. He was an infidel, with a\nsinful life, an uneasy conscience, and a sore heart. But the faces he saw\nthere of those redeemed out of the depths of sin, convinced him that they\nhad what he needed, and what he afterwards got, at the same place as they,\nthe feet of Christ. One who has looked into the faces at some of the\nSalvation Army meetings has no trouble believing the story.\n\nNow this is part of our Master's great plan for reaching His world. He\ncomes in to us, if we let Him. He changes us as we yield to Him. The\nbeauty of this wondrous One within shines out of face and eyes, and\ntouches those whom we touch. His presence transfigures when He is allowed\nto dominate. We are changed from within. Though like Moses and Stephen we\nwill not wist of the transfiguration, only of the Great One whose presence\nwithin it is that makes the change. We know the peace and music within;\nothers know more of the change in face and life.\n\n\n\nResurrection Power--A Present Experience.\n\n\nThere is a second experience in this group. In sharpest contrast with\nJacob's tomb stands out _the Resurrection Morning_. Our Lord Jesus rose up\nout of death. The strongest bars that death could make--and surely every\none of us has some sore experience of their strength in holding dear ones\nfrom us--those strongest bars were snapped, as a woman breaks the cotton\nthread in her sewing.\n\nOur Lord Jesus rose up again into life, and into a new, a higher, a\ndifferent sort of life. The personal identity was unchanged. His disciples\nrecognized His voice and face and form, as they talked and ate with Him.\nBut the limitations were gone. The control of spirit over body was\ncomplete.\n\nAnd it is a bit of His gracious plan that we shall follow Him here, too.\nWhen He returns in glory there will be a resurrection for those who have\nfollowed Him. As He comes down on the clouds, the dead bodies of those who\nhave the warm vital touch with Him, that the word \"believeth\" stands for,\nwill be touched into a new life and be reunited with the spirits that had\nlived in them.\n\nThere will be a wondrous meeting in the air with Himself, and an equally\nwondrous reunion in His presence of those bound to us and to Him by ties\nof love. Our personal identity will be the same, loved ones instantly\nrecognizing loved ones. But the bodies will be of a new sort, free of all\nthe limitations and weaknesses of our earth life. And our Lord's return is\npeculiarly precious because it is the time of this change and reunion.\n\nBut there is yet more than this. This is something future. There is a\npresent meaning of the resurrection-life for us, to-day, if we'll accept\nit, and live in the power of it. There _may_ be the resurrection life and\npower coming into our bodies now. As the need comes, it is our privilege\nto look up, and ask for, and experience resurrection power coming down\ninto our bodies, overcoming their weaknesses and diseased conditions.\n\nThe subject of healing involves much more, for a full poised\nunderstanding of the Scripture teaching, than can be satisfactorily talked\nover in the brief limits here. But the great fact can be thus simply\nstated, that there is full healing for our bodies by God's direct touch\nupon them. But this means on our part living a real faith life, looking up\nmoment by moment, receiving from His hand constantly what is needed, and\nusing it wholly for Him. It is actually a living of the dependent life as\nregards the bodily needs.\n\nPaul is clearly speaking of a present experience when he says, \"If the\nSpirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, He that\nraised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your dying\nbodies by means of His Spirit that dwelleth in you.\"[88] But this\nresurrection power coming in to affect our bodily conditions is frequently\nin the midst of most difficult trying circumstances. It is as though a\nsubtle hindering power were tenaciously at work, and this were being\noffset and overcome by the resurrection power.\n\nIt was under just such circumstances that Paul writes these words: \"We who\nlive are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, _that the life\nalso_--the resurrection life--_of Jesus may be manifested in our dying\nbodies_.\"[89] This as plainly means a present experience of power in our\nbodies, overcoming weakness, disease, and the tendency to death.\n\nThis is the present meaning of the resurrection for us. But it is possible\nonly for those who _will_ live the resurrection life of separation and of\nunion; separation from all that separates from the closest union of life\nwith our Lord Jesus. And it comes oftentimes through much conflict and\ndifficulty. This bit of the road is much contested.\n\n\n\nThe Ascension Life--Power in Possession.\n\n\nWhen our Lord Jesus had tarried long enough to make clear to His disciples\nHis actual bodily resurrection, He ascended to the Father's right hand,\nand was seated there in the place of highest honour and power. So He began\nliving _the Ascension Life_. That means two things, it is the life of\nfullest power in actual possession; _and_ that power is exercised through\nprayer,[90] His, and then--ours. Through His intercession with the Father,\nand through our intercession in Christ's Name, the power comes from the\nFather through Christ to us, and so through us.\n\nOur Lord Jesus is eager to have us follow Him here also. Following this\ntime means, actually using the power that has been placed at our disposal.\nIt means receiving from His pierced hand all He has actually redeemed for\nus by His precious blood. There is so much that is ours by right that we\ndo not take and use. Some do not take because they don't live where they\n_can_ take. And some live where they can take, who yet do _not_ take.\n\nSince the Father thinks of us as risen with Christ and seated with Him in\nthe place of highest power, we should seek to live up there, by His\ngrace.[91] The ascension life for us means simply living the actual life\nof power that has been made possible for us, and using that power through\nprayer.\n\nIt helps to remember here just how much may be included in that word\n\"prayer.\" One cannot be all the time on his knees, praying with his lips.\nAnd it certainly was not meant that we _should_ be. Yet there can be\nprayer \"without ceasing.\" Prayer is an _act_, the kneeling, and giving\nvoice to the desires of our hearts. Then the act grows into a _habit_, as\nthis becomes one of the fixed things of our daily round. And the habit\nfull grown, becomes a _life_. All the life grows out of that bit of\nkneeling-time, and all the life is carried to it. The hidden springs of\nthe life are here.\n\nAnd prayer becomes _a mental attitude_. You think of everything that comes\nup, opportunity, difficulty, emergency, crisis, plannings,--you\ninstinctively come to think about each thing from the standpoint of the\nkneeling-time. And so prayer grows to be _an atmosphere_. You live your\nlife in His presence to whom you kneel. He is always present. You come to\nrecognize His presence, which means that His presence dominates all your\nlife. He, this One whom you go to meet at the kneeling-time, He is\n_always_ here with you, listening to the unspoken thoughts. By and by you\ncome instinctively to think your thoughts as in His presence. Your\nlongings, plannings, difficulties are held open before Him. Prayer becomes\nthe atmosphere you breathe.\n\nAnd so prayer comes to be a _person. You_ are the prayer. The Father\nlooking down comes to recognize you, by your very attitude of heart, as a\nprayer, a continual, walking, living prayer, as you go quietly about your\nsimple, homely round. And the powers of evil, too, so recognize it. And\nthe Man at the Father's right hand recognizes in you one whom He has\nredeemed, and who, by His grace, would be and do and have, in actual life,\nall He has gotten for you.\n\nAnd through that six-fold continuous prayer, by the man who yields all,\nand reaches out _for_ all that is now his, the power of God is being\ncontinually loosened out among men, and the Father's plan being worked\nout. So, our Lord's ascension life at the Father's right hand, finds its\necho in the ascension life being lived by His follower on the earth.\n\n\n\nThe Coming Glory.\n\n\nThen comes the glorious future experience, _the Kingdom Reign and Glory_.\nSome day our Lord Jesus will rise up from His seat, and step again into\nthe direct action of the affairs of earth. Soon after that day He will\nbegin reigning over the earth as its King. The later pages of the Old\nTestament are all aglow with the glory of that time. He shall reign from\nthe Mediterranean, at the centre of the earth, out to the farthest\nsea-coast line, and from the Euphrates east and west to the most distant\nends of the earth.[92]\n\nAnd those who have followed Him during these trying days of His absence,\nshall reign with Him over all the earth, and be sharers in His glory.[93]\nHe will give both grace and glory.[94] Grace is the beginning of glory,\nand glory is the fulness of grace. It is all grace, free unmerited favour.\n\nNow I have grouped these experiences in this way to get a clear\nunderstanding of them. But we must remember that they did not come in\ngroups in Christ's life, and they won't in ours. The red and yellow\nthreads, the dark and bright, are interwoven throughout the web, to make\nthe beauty of the pattern. The minor chords come up here and there through\nthe others, sometimes overcoming, sometimes yielding to, the joyous\nnotes. The road of life runs valley and hill, valley and hill, up and\ndown.\n\nThere were great crises in Christ's life, and there may be, there quite\nlikely will be, crisis points in ours, but in the main the hard places\nintersperse with the smooth going. The weaver sitting at his loom runs in\na dark shuttle-thread, and then a sharp blow of the beam puts it in place;\nthen a bright thread and a sharp blow of the beam, and so, slowly,\npatiently, threads and blows follow each other till the design has been\nworked out.\n\nEven so will it be in this \"Follow Me\" road. A glad, joyous experience may\nbe followed by the one that is bitter and that hurts; and that again,\nperhaps, by something gladsome and cheery, while the daily round of life\nplods slowly on, day after day, week in and out, as the calendar works its\nsteady way to the end, and then begins anew.\n\nBut all the while there's the presence of the wondrous One, unseen by\nouter eyes, but unmistakably real. And His presence gives peace. And\nthere's an unfailing, guiding hand, whose grasp steadies you as you push\nalong.\n\nThis is the road. And yonder, just ahead, is the Lone Man, whose wondrous\nface calls, and the reach of His pierced hand beckons. Let us take a\ncareful look at the road, and a long look at the Man, and then----.\n\n\n\n\nShall We Go?\n\n\n\nThe Deeper Meaning of Friendship.\n\n\nA friend in need is a friend indeed. Our Lord Jesus was our friend in our\nneed. It was a desperate need. It could not be worse. We had been badly\nhurt by sin. The hurt was so bad that we could do nothing without help.\nOur Lord Jesus came to our help.\n\nIt was not easy for Him to be our friend. Friendship is sometimes very\ncostly. His reputation went, and then His life. But He never flinched. He\nwas thinking of us. Our need controlled Him. There were two controlling\nwords in our Lord Jesus' life--passion and compassion. He had a passion\nfor His Father. He had compassion for us. The two dovetailed perfectly.\nThe Father had an overwhelming compassion for us. The passion for the\nFather in our Lord's heart included the throbbing, sobbing compassion for\nus. The compassion was the manward expression of the passion for the\nFather.\n\nIt was this compassion that controlled Him those human years. It drove Him\nhard along the road we've been looking at. He was driven into the\nWilderness, through the years of sacrificial service, out into the grove\nof the olive trees, up the steep hill of Calvary, down into the depths of\nJoseph's tomb. Step-by-step He pushed His way along, for He was thinking\nof His Father and of us. The passion for the Father meant a compassion for\nus. Things proved worse in realization as He came up close to them, as\nthey began to touch His very life. But He never wavered. He never\nflinched, for He was thinking of us. He was our Friend, our Friend in our\ndesperate need. A friend in need is a friend indeed. It was by deeds that\nHe met our needs.\n\nBut friendship is mutual. It has two sides, its enjoyments and its\nobligations. That word \"friendship\" has two meanings. It means fellowship.\nTwo who are congenial in thought and aim and spirit can have sweet\nfellowship together as they make exchange with each other of the deep\nthings of their spirits. This is one meaning, and a sweet, hallowed\nmeaning, too. Then there is the other. You are in some sore need. It is a\ndesperate emergency in your life, and out of the circle of your friends\none singles himself out, and comes to your aid. At real cost or sacrifice\nto himself perhaps, he gives you that which meets and tides over your\nemergency.\n\nThis is the deeper, the rarer meaning of the word, rarer both in being\nless frequent and in being very precious. Fellowship friends may be many;\nemergency friends very, very few. And if circumstances so turn out that\nthis man who has so rarely proven himself your friend, is himself in some\nemergency, and you are now in position to help him, as once he helped you,\nyou count it not only an obligation of the highest sort, but the rarest of\nprivileges. And with great joy you come to his help without stopping to\ncount the cost in the doubtful, questioning way. Friendship is mutual.\n\nNow this second, this deep, rare meaning, is the one we're using just now.\nIt comes to include the fellowship meaning, so enriching the emergency\nfriendship yet more. But the emphasis is on the emergency meaning of the\nword friendship. Our Friend was a friend in this deepest, rarest way, in\nthe desperate emergency of our lives.\n\nAnd now this Friend of ours is in need, a need so great that it is an\nemergency. And this seems a startling thing to say. You may think I'm\nindulging some rhetorical figure of speech merely. He, the Lord Jesus, in\nneed! He is now seated at the Father's right hand in glory. He is \"far\nabove all rule and authority and power and dominion.\" He is the sovereign\nruler of our world. How can it be said, with any soberness of practical\nmeaning, that He is in need, and in desperate need? Yet, let me repeat\nvery quietly, that it is even so.\n\n_He needs our co-operation._ He needs the human means through which to\nwork out His plans. The power of God has always flowed _through human\nchannels_. And His plans _have waited,_ have been delayed because He has\nnot always been able to find men willing to let Him use them as He will.\nThis is the only explanation of the long, weary waiting of the earth for\nHis promised Kingdom. This, only, explains centuries of delay in the\nworking out of His plans. The delay, the dark centuries, the\nmisery,--these have been no part of His plan, but dead set against His\nplan.\n\n    \"The restless millions wait the Light,\n      Whose coming maketh all things new.\n    _Christ also waits_; but men are slow and late.\n      Have we done what we could? Have I? Have you?\"\n\nSome unknown friend, on seeing the statue of General Gordon, as it stands\nfacing the great desert and the Soudan at Khartoum, made these lines:\n\n    \"The strings of camels come in single file,\n      Bearing their burdens o'er the desert sand:\n    Swiftly the boats go plying on the Nile.\n      The needs of men are met on every hand,\n    But still I wait\n    For the messenger of God _who cometh late_.\n\n    I see the clouds of dust rise in the plain,\n      The measured tread of troops falls on the ear;\n    The soldier comes the empire to maintain,\n      Bringing the pomp of war, the reign of fear,\n    But still I wait\n    The messenger of peace, _he cometh late_.\n\n    They set me brooding o'er the desert drear,\n      Where broodeth darkness as the deepest night.\n    From many a mosque there comes the call to prayer;\n      I hear no voice that calls on _Christ_ for light.\n    But still I wait\n    For the messenger of Christ, _who cometh late.\"_[95]\n\n\n\nFollowing Wholly.\n\n\nOur Friend is in need. The world's condition spells out the desperateness\nof that need. The world's need is His need. It is His world. This world is\nGod's prodigal son. It is the passion of our Lord Jesus' heart to win His\nworld back, and save it. That passion has been revealed most, thus far, in\nHis going to the great extreme of dying. That passion is still\nunsatisfied. Yonder He sits, with scarred face and form, _expecting_.[96]\nBending eagerly forward with longing eyes He is expecting. He is\nexpectantly waiting our response, expectantly waiting the day when things\nwill have ripened on the earth for the next step in the great plan.\n\nAnd down from the throne comes the same eager cry He used when amongst us\non earth, \"Follow Me.\" This is the one call, with many variations, that\nruns through the seven-fold message to His followers in the book of the\nRevelation.[97]\n\nBut He calls for real followers. He needs Calebs, who are willing, if\nneed be, to face a whole nation dead-bent on going the other way, and yet\nwho never flinch but insist on following fully. Caleb's following was so\nunflinching, so against the current of his whole time, that it stands out\nwith the peculiar emphasis of a six-fold mention.[98]\n\nThose who follow \"wholly\" seem scarce sometimes. I was struck recently\nwith an utterance by a man prominent in business circles and in Christian\nactivity for years. He was speaking of how he had been active in a certain\nform of Christian activity, and declared that it had never occasioned him\nany loss, or been a detriment to him in his business. The words had a\nstrange, suspicious sound. The Master told those who would follow fully\nthat they might expect much loss and detriment.\n\nThe Master was very careful to give the \"if's\" a prominent place. \"If any\nman would come after Me.\"[99] \"If any man would serve Me let him follow\nMe.\"[100] Those \"if's\" are the cautionary signals. They mean obstacles\nneeding to be considered before one decides. We must determine whether we\nwill take them away or not. Half-way following, part-way following, has\nbecome very common in some of the other parts of the world, where we don't\nlive. I'll leave you to judge how it is in your own neighbourhood.\n\nI have seen people start down this \"Follow Me\" road with great enthusiasm\nand real earnestness, singing as they go. Then the road begins to narrow a\nbit. The thorn bushes on the side have grown so thick and rank that they\npush over the sides of the road, and narrow it down. You can't go along\nwithout the thorns scratching face and hands badly as you push through.\n\nAnd then you suddenly find a knife, a sharpedged knife, being held out\nacross the road, by an unseen hand back in the bushes. The cutting edge is\ntoward you. It is held firmly. It is clearly impossible to go on without a\nclash with that knife. The real meaning of that \"Follow Me\" is beginning\nto be seen now. Just ahead beyond the knife stands the Master, looking\nlongingly, beckoning earnestly, calling still. But that knife! It takes\nyour eyes, and the question is on in real earnest.\n\nAnd it is very grievous to say that some stop there. They pitch their\ntents this side the knife. They may have had the courage to push through\nthe thorns, but this knife stops them. They're not honest enough to back\nclear out of the road. So they hold meetings on the roadway, conferences\nfor the deepening of the Christian life, with earnest addresses, and\nconsecration meetings, and soft singing. And if perchance some one calls\nattention to the Master standing ahead there, beyond the knife,\nbeckoning,--well, they sing louder and pray longer so as to ease their\nconsciences a bit, and deaden unpleasant sounds, but they make no move\ntoward striking tents and pushing on.\n\nAnd many coming up along the road are hindered. The crowds, the meetings,\nthe singing, the earnestness,--these take hold of them and keep them from\ndiscerning that all this is an obstruction in the way. The Master's ahead\nyonder, past that cutting knife. In a very clear voice that rises above\nmeetings and music, He calls, \"If any man would serve Me, let him follow\nMe, let him get _in behind Me_, and come _up close after Me_.\" He who\nwould serve, he who would help, must not stop here, but push on to where\nthe Master is beckoning,--yes, past the knife!\n\nBut there are big crowds at the half-way place, this side the knife. And\nthere are still larger crowds looking on and sneering, sneering at those\nwhose following hasn't got much beyond the singing stage. The outside\ncrowd does love sincerity, and is very keen for the faults and flaws in\nthose who call themselves followers.\n\n\n\nThe Tuning-Fork for the Best Music.\n\n\nBut some push on; they go forward; and as they reach the knife they grasp\nit firmly by the blade. Yes, it cuts, and cuts deep. But they push on, on\nafter the Master. They turn the knife into a tuning-fork. Do you know\nabout this sort of thing? The steel in a knife can be used to make a\ntuning-fork. The touch of obedience brings music out of sacrifice.\n\nThis is the only tuning-fork that can give the true pitch for that\nsweetest music we were speaking of a little while ago. This is a bit of\nthe power of obedience. It can change a challenging knife into an\ninstrument of music. This is a bit of the strategy of obedience, the fine\ntactics of sacrifice. The tempter with the knife would hold us back. We\nseize his knife from his grasp. He can never use that knife again. And we\nuse it to make sweet music to help the marching. What was meant to hold us\nback now helps us forward.\n\nThis is the tuning-fork the Master used. He would have us use it, too. But\neach one must take it himself, out of the threatening hand that would hold\nus back. As the call to follow comes we must go on, no matter what it\ninvolves. No circumstance, no possible loss, no sacrifice, must hold us\nback, for a moment, or a step, from following where our Friend calls; only\nso can we be His friend.\n\nShall we go on _all the way_? Or, shall we join the company at the\nhalf-way stopping place? Well, _it's a matter of your eyes_, how you use\nthem. If the knife holds your eyes, you'll never get past it. That knife\nis like the deadly serpent's glittering eye. If the cobra's eye can get\nyour eye, you are held fast in that awful, deadly fascination.\n\nIf you'll _lift_ your eyes, to the Master's face!--ah, that's the one\nthing, the only thing, that can _hold_ our eyes with gaze steadier than\nany serpent eye. The face of Christ Jesus, torn by thorns, scarred by\nthongs, but with the wondrous beauty light shining out, and those great\npatient, pleading eyes! This it was that held that young Indian aristocrat\nsteady, while he sold all--bit by bit, of such precious things--sold all.\n\nThis it was that held steady the young Jewish aristocrat, Paul. He never\nforgot the light on that caravan road north, above the shining of the sun.\nHe never could forget it. It blinded him. He \"could not see for the glory\nof that light.\" Old ambitions blurred out. Old attachments faded, and then\nfaded clear out before the blaze of that light. Family ties, inheritance,\nsocial prestige, reputation, old friendships, old honoured standards,--all\nfaded out in the light of Jesus' face on that northern road.\n\n\n\nHow to Follow.\n\n\nShall we take a look at that face? a long look? Shall we go? Practically\ngoing means three things, a _decision_, a _habit_ and a _purpose_; a\nthoughtful, calculating decision, a daily unbroken habit, an unalterable\nnorth-star sort of purpose.\n\nGo alone in some quiet corner where you can think things out. Look at what\nit may mean for you to follow, so far as you know now. Most of it you\ndon't know, and won't know, can't know except as it works out in your\nlife. Take a long, quiet, thoughtful look at the road. Then take a longer,\nquieter, steadier look at Him, Christ Jesus, once crucified for you, now\nseated in glory with all power, and asking you to-day to be a channel for\nHis power. Then decide. Say, \"Lord Jesus, I _will_ follow Thee. This is my\ndecision. By Thy help, I follow Thee, I'll follow Thee all the way.\"\nThat's the first step, the decision.\n\nAs I entered the tent at Keswick one morning, a friend handed me these\nlines, which came to her pen at the close of a previous meeting:\n\n    \"I will follow Thee, dear Master,\n    Though the road be rough and steep,\n    Thou wilt hold me lest I falter,\n    Thy strong hand must safely keep.\n\n    Enter in, Lord, cleanse Thy temple,\n    Give the grace to put away\n    All that hinders, all that's doubtful,\n    O'er my life hold blessed sway.\n\n    Use me, Master, for Thy glory,\n    Live out Thine own life through me,\n    That my life may tell the story,\n    And win others unto Thee.\n\n    Keep me trusting Thee, Lord Jesus,\n    Walking closely by Thy side,\n    Keep me resting, sweetly resting,\n    As I in Thy love abide.\"\n\nThen plan your work and time so as to get a bit of time off alone every\nday with the Book and with the Master. The chief thing is not to pray,\nthough you will pray. It is not for Bible study, though that will be there\ntoo. The chief thing is to meet with the Lord Jesus Himself. He will come\nto you through the Book. He will fit its messages into your questions and\nperplexities. He Himself will come to meet with you when you so go to meet\nwith Him. You won't always _realize_ His presence, for you may sometimes\nbe tired. But you can _recognize_ His presence. You can cultivate the\nhabit of recognizing His presence.\n\nThis is your bit of daily school-time, with the Book and the Master. It\nwill keep your spirit sweet, your heart hot, and your judgment sane and\npoised. This is the second thing, the _habit._ It is the thing you cannot\nget along without. It must go in daily. Without it things will tangle;\nyour heart will cool, your spirit sometimes take on an edge that isn't\ngood, your judgment get warped and twisted, and your will grow either\nwabbly or stubborn. This second thing must be put in the daily round, and\nkept in. It helps to hold you steady to the first thing.\n\nThen the third is the _purpose_ to be true to whatever the Master tells\nyou, to be true to Himself; never to fail _Him_. You may flinch within\nyour feelings. You probably will. Yet you need never flinch in action.\nFollow the beckoning Figure just ahead in the road, regardless of thorny\nbush or cutting knife. Keep your spirit sweet, your tongue gentle and\nslow, your touch soft and even, your purpose as inflexible as wrought\nsteel, or as granite, as unmovable as the North Star. That's the third\nthing, the purpose.\n\nAnd the three make the three-fold cord with which to tie you fast and hard\nto the Lone Man ahead. He is less alone as we follow close up. The three\ntogether help you understand the meaning of _obedience_. The decision is\nthe beginning of obedience; the habit teaches you _what_ you are to obey\nand gives you strength to do it; the purpose is the actual obedience in\ndaily round, the holding true to what He has told you.\n\nYears ago, a young Jewess, of a wealthy family, that stood high in the\nJewry of New York, heard the call of the despised Nazarene. It came to her\nwith great, gentle power, and she decided that she must follow. Her father\nwas very angry, and threatened disinheritance if she so disgraced the\nfamily. But she remained quietly, gently, inflexibly, true to her\ndecision. At last the father planned a social occasion at the home to\nwhich large numbers were invited. And he said to his daughter, \"You must\nsing at this reception, and make this your disavowal of the Christian\nfaith.\" And she quietly said, \"Father, I will sing.\"\n\nThe evening came, the parlours were filled, the time came for her to sing,\nand all listened eagerly, for they knew the beauty of her voice. With her\nheart in both eyes and voice, she began singing:\n\n    \"Jesus, I my cross have taken,\n      All to leave and follow Thee;\n    Destitute, despised, forsaken,\n      Thou, from hence, my all shalt be.\n\n    Perish every fond ambition,\n      All I've sought, and hoped, and known:\n    Yet how rich is my condition!\n      God and heaven are all my own.\"\n\nAnd she passed out into the night of disinheritance on earth, \"into an\ninheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.\" This\nwas her decision. She had seen _His face!_ All else paled in its light.\n\nShall we go, too?\n\n\n\n\nFinger-Posts\n\n\n\nThe Parable of the Finger-Posts.\n\n\nWaiting is harder work than working. It takes more out of you. And it puts\nmore into you, too, of fine-grained, steady strength, if you can stand the\nstrain of it. And if, to the waiting is added perplexity, the pull upon\nyour strength is much greater. It is harder to hold steady, and not break.\nAnd if the thing you've put your very life into seems at stake, that taxes\nthe wearing power of your strength to the utmost.\n\nSuch a time, and just such a test, came to the little band of disciples\nafter the resurrection, and before the ascension. The story of it is told\nin that added chapter of John's Gospel. You remember that last chapter is\none of the added touches. The Gospel is finished with the finish of the\ntwentieth chapter. Then John is led by the Spirit, to add something more.\nThat added chapter becomes to us like an acted parable, the parable of the\nadded touch. There is always the added touch, the extra touch of power, of\nlove, of answer to prayer. Our Lord has a way of giving more. The prayer\nitself is answered, and then some added touch is given for full measure.\nSo it is in all His dealings, when He is allowed to have His own way. He\nis the Lord of the added touch. He does exceeding abundantly above what we\nask, or think, or expect.\n\nThese disciples were now to have one of these added touches. It was a time\nof sore perplexity. The crucifixion had left them dazed, stupefied. It was\nwholly unexpected. They were utterly at sea, with neither compass, nor\nsteering apparatus of any sort. That Saturday to them was one of the\nlongest, dreariest, heaviest days ever spent by any one. They had all\nproven untrue to their dead Friend, save one.\n\nThen as unexpectedly came the resurrection. They're dazed again, this time\nwith joy. They haven't taken it in yet. To say that the two shocks, each\nso radically different from the other, shook them tremendously, is stating\nit very mildly. They don't know themselves. They haven't found their feet.\nThey haven't adjusted yet to their swiftly changing surroundings. They\ndon't know what next. They don't know what to do.\n\nSo the old impulsive Simon in Peter proposed something. Simon, the\nunsteady, was much in evidence those days. Peter the rock-man hadn't\narrived yet. This was Simon Peter's specialty, proposing something. He\nsaid, \"Well, I'm going fishing.\" And the others quickly said, \"We'll go\nalong.\" The mere doing something would be a relief. But they caught\nnothing. It was a poor night. The morning brought only heavy hearts with\nlight nets and boats. They had failed at following; now they were failing\neven at their old specialty, fishing. Couldn't they do _any_thing?\n\nIn the dim light of the breaking dawn there's some One standing on the\nbeach, a Stranger. He seems interested in them, and calls out familiarily,\n\"Have you caught anything?\" And you feel the heaviness of their hearts\nover something else in the shout \"No.\" And the gentle voice calls out,\nwith a certain tone of quiet authority in it, \"Throw over on the right\nthere, and you'll get some fish.\" And they cast the nets out again,\nfeeling a strong impulse to obey this kindly Stranger, without stopping to\nthink out why.\n\nAnd at once the ropes pull so hard that it takes all their strength to\nhold them. It's John's quick insight that recognizes the Stranger. With\nhis heart in his throat, in awe-touched voice, he quietly says, \"It's the\nLord.\" That's enough for Peter. He takes the shortest way to shore. He has\nsome things to talk over with the Master. And as the seven tired men\nlanded the fish, they found breakfast waiting on the sands. Who built that\nfire? Who cooked that fish? Who was thinking about them and caring for\ntheir personal needs, when they were so tired and hungry? And when\nbreakfast was finished, there's the quiet talk together, about love and\nservice, while the sun is climbing up in the east. It is addressed to\nPeter, but it is meant, too, for those who were so fleet-footed a few\nnights before.\n\nAll this was the answer to their perplexity. They were willing and waiting\nto follow, but they had failed so badly. They were not quite sure where\nthey stood. They had no finger-posts. Now the finger-posts were put up to\nshow the way. This fishing scene was an acted parable, the Parable of the\nFinger-posts.\n\n\n\nThe Lineage of Service.\n\n\nLook at these finger-posts a little. There was the Lord Jesus. They didn't\nrecognize Him. But He was there. He had a plan. He took authoritative\ncommand of their movements. He gave directions. They obeyed Him. Then came\nthe great haul of fish. Then came the quiet talk about love and service,\nbut with the emphasis on love.\n\nThe love was the chief thing. The service was something growing out of\nlove. \"Lovest thou Me?\" Then thou mayest serve, thou hast the chiefest\nqualification. Our Lord gave them the lineage of service that morning.\nThese are the generations of true service. A sight of Jesus begets love, a\ntender, gentle, strong, passionate thing of rarest beauty that is\nimmortal, but must have the constant sight of its father's face for\nvigorous life. And love at once begets obedience, which grows strong and\nstout and skilled, as long as it stays in its father's presence. And\nobedience begets service, untiring, glad, patient service.\n\nThere are some outsiders that have come into this family, but they do not\nhave the fine traits of blood-kin. \"Duty\" is one of these. It serves\nbecause it must. And at times it renders fine, high service. But its\nservice comes out of the will, rather than out of the heart. It is ruled\nmore by a sense of propriety, never by a passion of the heart.\n\n\"Privilege\" is near of kin to duty, and it is a high-born, fine-grained\nthing. It serves because it is an honour to do so. It is enjoyable to be\nso highly connected. But it constantly needs proper recognition and\nappreciation of its work and skill. But these are really outsiders. They\nhave married in, and do not have the real family traits. The one word, and\nthe only one, that may properly be used for true service is that fine\nword, \"passion.\" True service is a thing of love, a thing of the heart, a\nflame that pervades and permeates and envelops the whole life within and\nwithout, a fire that consumes and controls.\n\nThe Lord Jesus, His presence, His plan, His authoritative leadership,\ntheir obedience, love thrice asked and given, service because of\nlove,--these are the finger-posts for these perplexed men. They can be put\ninto very simple shape for our guidance. Three finger-posts hung up will\ninclude all of them,--_clear vision, a spirit of obedience, a heart of\ntender love_. These are the three great essentials of all true, full\nfollowing. And there will not be, there cannot be, true full following\nwithout all three of these. There may be much earnest, honest service,\nmuch faithful plodding, and hard work, and much good done. But there's\nalways less than the best. There is less than should be. The best results\nare not being got for the effort expended, except where these three are\nblended.\n\nA clear vision means simply a clear understanding of things as they are,\nand of what needs to be done, with all the facts in that belong in. A\nspirit of obedience means not only an obedience in spirit, a spirited\nobedience, but an obedience that fits into the spirit of the Leader and\nHis plans. And through these as a fine fragrance breathes a heart of\ntender undiscourageable love.\n\n\n\nNot Quite In Is Outside.\n\n\nThese three things must be kept in poise. So the Master plans. This is the\nparable of the fishing. There are many illustrations of one only of these,\nor two, in action. And the bad or poor result that works out can be\nplainly seen. The Holy Spirit with great plainness and faithfulness has\nhung up cautionary signs along the road.\n\nThere may be _clear vision without obedience._ That is, a clear\nunderstanding of the Master's plan, but a failure to fit in. That will\nmean a dimming vision. And if persisted in, it will mean spiritual\ndisaster. The great illustration of this is Judas. Judas had as clear a\nvision, in all likelihood, as the others when he was chosen for\ndiscipleship, and later for apostleship. There was the possibility of a\nJohn in Judas, even as there was the possibility of a Judas in John. Both\nare in every man. But Judas was not true to the vision he had. He wanted\nto use the Master to further his own plans and advantage. And the vision\nslowly blurred and dimmed, as the under nature was given the upper hand.\nThe Master's clear insight recognized the demon spirit that Judas had\nallowed to come in, though Judas did not.[101] Then came the dastardly act\nof betrayal. And Judas has been held up to universal scorn and\ncondemnation.\n\nBut Judas isn't so lonely, if you think into the thing a bit. He only put\npersonal advantage above loyalty to the Lord Jesus. He simply preferred\nhis own plans to the Master's plans. That was all. And he tried to force\nhis own through, without suspecting how the thing would turn out, and how\ntremendously much was involved. The great events being worked out have\nthrown his contemptible act into the limelight of history. But the act\nitself wasn't uncommon. Possibly you may know some one living quite near,\nwith some of this same sort of trait.\n\n\nOne of the saddest things in the record of Christian leadership is just\nthis, clear vision with a gradually lessening obedience, then a gradually\ndimming vision, and that decrease of both increasing, as the slant down\nincreases. The old-time motions in public ministering continue, more or\nless mechanically, but the power has long since passed away. And sadder\nyet, like the strong man of old, these shorn men wist it not. One's lips\nrefuse to repeat the word \"Judas\" of them, even in the inner thoughts. Yet\nthese class themselves under the same description,--clear vision without\nfull obedience to it; personal plans and preferences put above loyalty to\nthe Master.\n\nA second illustration is that of King Saul. Clear vision, failure to obey,\nforcing himself to wrong action to keep his popularity, rebellion,\nstubbornness,--these are the simple successive steps in his story. And the\nblack night falls upon the utter spiritual disaster of his career, as he\nlies prone on the earth before the witch.\n\nThese two characters become formulas; they need only to be filled in with\nother names to make accurate modern biography of some.\n\nThere may be _clear vision with make-believe_ or _partial obedience_. It\nhurts to speak of such a thing. The word \"hypocrisy\" is a very hard one to\nget out at the lips. It should never be used except to help, and then\nvery, very sparingly, and only in humblest spirit, and with earnest,\nsecret prayer. Ananias and Sapphira quickly come to mind here. They wanted\n_men_ to think them wholly surrendered, though they knew they were not.\nThat was all; not so unusual a thing, after all. There are sore\ntemptations here for many. The swiftness of the punishment that came does\nnot mean that their wrong was worse than that of others who do the same\nthing. That modern religious lying of this sort is not as quickly judged\nmerely tells the marvellous _patience_ of God.\n\nThere may be _clear vision and obedience without love._ This means a hard,\ncold, stern righteousness. It is truth without grace. Nothing can be made\nto seem more repulsive. One incident in Elijah's career furnishes the\nillustration here. Let us say such a thing _very softly_ of such a mighty\nman of God, and say it in fewest words, and only to help. He was a man of\nmarvellous faith, and prayer, and bold daring, in the midst of a very\ncrooked and perverse generation. Israel was at its very lowest moral ebb\nthus far.\n\nElijah had a clear understanding of what should be done to check the awful\nimpurity which was sweeping over the nation like a flood-tide. He was true\nto his conviction in sending the four hundred priests of horribly\nlicentious worship to their death. But was he brokenhearted over them? Was\nhe utterly broken down with grief as he led them to the little running\nbrook of Kishon for the nation's sake? God touched the sore spot, when,\ndown at Horeb, the mount of thunder and fire, He spoke to this man of fire\nand thunder in that exquisitely soft sound of gentle stillness. This was\na new revelation of God to this stern prophet of righteousness.\n\nThere may be a sort of letter-obedience, a formal obedience to the vision\nyou have. In one's own estimation, there may seem to be a knowledge of\nwhat is right, and a self-satisfied doing of it. There may be a\npainstaking attention to the forms of obedience, and a self-righteous\ncontent in doing the required things. Is this the underlying thought in\nPeter's self-complacent remark, \"Lo, _we_ have left all and followed\nThee.[102] We're so much better than this rich young ruler who couldn't\nstand the test you put to him. _We----\"?_ Poor, self-confident Peter! When\nthe fire test did come, and come so hot, how his \"we\" did crumble!\n\n\"_Light Obeyed Increaseth Light_.\"\n\nThere may be _obedience without clear vision._ That is, there may be a\ndoing of what is thought to be right, but without a clear understanding of\nwhat is the right thing to do. This results in _fanaticism_. Moses killing\nthe Egyptian and hiding his body in the sand had no clear vision of God's\nplan. He knew something was wrong, and that something needed to be done.\nAnd so he proposed doing something. And the poor Egyptian who happened in\nhis way that day felt the weight of his zeal. It's a not uncommon way of\nattempting to righten wrongs. He forgot that there is a God, and a plan,\nand that he who does not work into the plan of God is hitting wrong. There\nhas been a lot of wreckage scattered along this beach.\n\nSaul persecuting the Christians is another illustration here. He is a sad,\nstriking example of conscientiousness without sufficient knowledge, of\nearnestness without clear light. He was conscientiously doing the wrong\nthing, as earnestly as he could, supposing it to be the right thing. John\nwanted to call down fire from heaven and burn up some people that didn't\nfit in with their plans.[103] Earnest intensity without sufficient light\nhas kindled a good many fires of this sort.\n\nSometimes this does not go as far as hurtful fanaticism, but leads to\nblundering and confusion and delay. Abraham was acting without clear light\nwhen he yielded to Sarah's plan of compromise for getting an heir.[104] A\nbit of quiet holding of her suggestion before God for light would have\ncleared his mind. The result was wholly bad,--a confusion in his own mind,\na mental cloudiness about God's plan and promise, an element of discord\nintroduced in the tribal life, and a delay of many years, apparently,\nbefore the conditions were ripe for the coming of the heir of faith, on\nGod's own plan.\n\nPeter eating with his Gentile Christian brothers, and then refusing to eat\nwith them, when some Jewish Christians came down from Jerusalem, made\nvery bitter feeling in the Church at Antioch, for a time.[105] Paul's\nclearer light helped. Time spent in waiting for clearer light is always\ntime wisely spent, even though we may seem slow.\n\nThere may be _love without clear vision_. The love makes intense desire to\ndo something, but with no clear idea of what would best be done. Peter's\nawkward sword-thrust was an attempt to help, because of real love in his\nheart for his Master, now in personal danger. The Master's quiet healing\ntouch recognized the love, and also rebuked and corrected the hasty,\nill-advised action. But there's worse yet here, mean contemptible\ncowardice. Peter actually denying his relation with his Friend and Master,\nand making his denial seem more natural by the addition of the oaths that\nthe maid well knew no follower of this Jesus could have uttered--what mean\ncontemptible cowardice! But go gently there in using such hard words. He\nwas only afraid of being hurt. He merely wanted to save himself. That\nisn't such an uncommon thing. Haven't you sometimes known something of\nthis sort--_among others?_\n\nThe cowardly nine, making a new record for fleet-footedness, down the\nroad, in the dark, were only doing the same thing in more cowardly,\nless-spirited fashion. These men loved Jesus. No one may doubt that. But\nthere was no clear understanding of that night's doings, though the\nMaster had faithfully and plainly tried to tell them. Fear for their own\nsafety overcame the real love in their hearts for the Man they forsook\nthat dark night.\n\n_Clear vision and love without obedience_ is--impossible! Where there is\nno obedience, or faulty obedience, either the vision has blurred or\ndimmed, or the love is burning low.\n\n_Clear vision and loving obedience_ mean power, sweet, gentle, fragrant,\nhelpful power. It means a grateful crowd, and a pleased Master, who has\nbeen able once again to reach the crowd.\n\n_Clear vision and love as a passion_, an intense passion, means\nirresistible power. That is to say it means a perfect human medium through\nwhich our Lord Jesus can act and manifest Himself. And this is the real\nmeaning of power, power to the full,--Jesus Christ in free action. John,\nthe fisherman, had a gradually but steadily clearing vision. He did not\nunderstand fully. But he understood enough to know that there was more to\ncome which would clear things up. He could follow where He did not\nunderstand. His love for the Man controlled, while his understanding was\nclearing. He went in \"_with_ Jesus\" that awful night. I imagine he never\nleft His side. Can we ever be grateful enough that at least one of us was\ntrue that night!\n\nThere was the same danger as with the others, and it was made more acute\nby His simple, open stand at his Friend's side. But love, with at least\nsome understanding, held him steady. He could understand that Jesus must\nbe doing the right thing, even though he could not understand the run of\nevents that centred about Jesus.\n\nThe intensity that would call down fire, changed, under the influence of\nthe changing, clearing vision, into an intensity of love. It was a\nmellower, gentler, evener, but not less intense flame. The disciple whom\nJesus loved became the disciple of love. Love and vision worked upon each\nother from earliest times with him. Love made the vision clearer, the\nclearing vision made the love stronger, till they worked together into a\nperfect blend.\n\nPaul's unmistakable vision on the Damascus road brought a passion of love,\nand an answering obedience, that swept him like a great flame. The\nfire-marks of that flame could be found all over the Roman Empire. He made\nmistakes doubtless, but these but made the trend of his whole life stand\nout the more. Paul was a wonderful combination of brain and heart and\nwill, held in remarkable poise. The finest classic on love is from his\npen. John could love. Paul could love, and could tell about love.\n\nBut a peculiar tenderness comes into one's heart as we remember that there\nwas just one Man who held these three in perfect poise. And let us not\nforget that though He was more than man, yet it was a _man_, one of\nourselves, who so held these three in such fine balance. It was a human\npoise, even as planned by the Father for the human life. The clear vision\nearly began coming to Him,[106] and it became clearer and fuller and\nunmistakable until it had had its fulfilment. Obedience was the touchstone\nof all His life, from Nazareth to Olivet. And who, like Him, had the heart\nof tender love, the heart that was ever moved with compassion at sight of\nneed, the heart that broke at the last under the sore grief of its burden\nof love?\n\n\n\nThe Olivet Vision.\n\n\nShall we take a moment more to look at these three finger-posts a little\nmore closely? Just what is meant by _a clear vision?_ I could say at once\nthat it means a vision of our Lord Jesus Christ. And yet that language has\nsometimes been used in a vague sort of way. And some of us have taken it\nin a vague indefinite way, and not thought into its practical meaning.\nClear vision here means an understanding of who Christ Jesus is, and what\nHe is, and what plans He has. Then it means that that understanding is so\nclear that it becomes intense, intense to the point of being overwhelming.\nThat is, it becomes the _dominant_ thing that controls your thinking, and\naffections, and actions,--your life.\n\nI think I may say correctly that the place for getting such a clear, full\nvision of Christ Jesus is _Olivet_. Olivet is a good place to pitch your\ntent for a little while, until your vision clears. Then you'll not stay\nthere, though you may return to keep the lines of your vision clear and\nclean; you will be down in the valleys with the crowds.\n\nOne day the Master led His disciples out to the Mount of Olives. It was\nthe last time they were together. And the group of men stand there\ntalking, the eleven grouped about the One. He is talking with them quietly\nand earnestly. Then, to their utter amazement, His feet are off the\nground, He is rising upward in the air, then higher, and higher, until a\nbit of cloud moves across, and they see Him no more. This is all you would\nsee at a distance.\n\nBut let us come a bit nearer, and stand _with_ them, and listen, and\nwatch. Olivet is the last bit of earth to feel the presence of the\nMaster's feet. Off yonder to the west, down in the valley, you see a clump\nof trees; that is Gethsemane, the place of the bloody sweat and the tense\nagony of spirit. Across the valley, still looking west, lies the city,\noutside whose wall is the little knoll called Calvary, where Jesus gave\nHis life out. Over here to the east and south lies little Bethany, which\nspeaks of His resurrection power. And a bit farther off are the bare wilds\nsloping down,--that is the place of the sore temptation. Far away to the\nnorth, up in the clouds, lies _the_ snow-clad mountain, beyond your outer\nvision, yet coming now to your inner vision, where the God within shined\nout through the Man.\n\nBut while a quick glance takes all this in, your eyes are caught and held\nby the Man in the midst. His presence embodies and intensifies all that\nthese places suggest. His face bears the impress of the Wilderness, and of\nthe Garden. The scars plainly there tell of Calvary, as no piece of\ngeography ever can. His mere presence tells unmistakably of the\nresurrection. And you know who He is, and what. He made the world and\nbreathed His breath of life into man's nostrils. Later He came in amongst\nus as one of ourselves. He was tempted like as we, suffered like as we\nnever suffered, gave His life for us, went down into death, _rose_ up\nagain out of death. This is the Jesus of Olivet.\n\nBut the action of His face and pose are part of the sight. His eyes are\nlooking _outward_. The set of His face is out. His hands point out. And He\nis talking; listen: He is talking about a _\"world\"_. And the outward turn\nof face and eyes and pointing hand become the emphasis of that word,\n\"_world.\"_ He died for a world. He is thinking about a world. He has a\nplan of action for a world.\n\nBut another word gets your ear--\"_ye.\"_ He is thinking about these\ndisciples, about His followers. He has a plan of action for them. And\nthese two plans, for the world, for their lives, these two are tied up\ntogether. And a third word stands out--\"_I_.\" \"I am with you, I am in\ncommand.\" And now three things stand out together, a world-plan, a plan\nfor the follower's life fitting into the world-plan, and in the\nmidst--Jesus, the Christ, my Saviour, my Lord. This is the Olivet vision.\nThis, the clear, full vision: of Jesus, crucified, risen, empowered; of\nHis world-plan; of His plan for my life as part of the world-plan.\n\nOlivet faces four ways. Backward, it points to the sympathy, the\nhumanness, the suffering, the cross, of Jesus. Upward, it looks to\nHimself, now sitting above the clouds at the Father's right hand, \"far\nabove all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name\nthat is named,\" with \"all things in subjection under His feet.\" Outward,\nit reaches to the world He died for, and plans for, and is still brooding\nover with more than a mother's love. Forward, it anticipates eagerly the\ntime when He will come back to finish up what He began, and we are to\ncontinue. When He returns it will be to this same Olivet.[107] He picks up\nthe line of action exactly where He left it. Olivet is to know a second\npressure of those feet.\n\nThis is the clear, full vision, the three-fold vision we need and must\nhave for true following: Himself, His world-plan, His plan for each one's\nlife. This means seeing things as they are. They fall into true\nperspective. You see how disproportioned and grotesque the common\nperspective of earth is. You see things through His eyes. His eyes take\nout of yours the personal colouring, the colour blindness of personal\ninterest and advantage which so strangely and strongly affect all our\nsight.\n\nWe need frequent visits to Olivet's top, until constant looking at its\noutlooking landscape, at Himself, fills and floods our eyes. We need the\nquiet time alone with Himself and His Word, and some map-picture of His\nworld, as a habit, until these, Himself, and His word, and His world, are\nburned into eyes and heart, until they fire as a sweet fever the whole\nlife.\n\n\n\nThe Spirit of Obedience.\n\n\nOut of the vision comes the _spirit of obedience_. We have spoken of the\nact of obedience, and the habit of obedience, but deeper down is the\nspirit of obedience, which lies under act and habit. I have used the\nwords, \"spirit of obedience,\" rather than simply the word, \"obedience,\"\nbecause obedience sometimes stands for a bondage to rules, a slavery to\nthings. The obedience itself must be deeper than rule or outward thing.\nThe spirit of obedience sees into the spirit of the rule, and through the\noutward thing, and floods it with a new spirit of life. This spirit of\nobedience is the one finger-post found oftenest along this road. So only\ncan we be true to the vision. And obedience itself is not true obedience,\nnor true to the vision, save as it is a love-obedience. Real obedience\nbreathes in the spirit of the One being obeyed. It breathes out the\nlove-spirit of him who obeys.\n\nThe touchstone of the \"Follow Me\" life is not need, nor service, nor\nsacrifice. The need is felt to the paining point. The service is given\njoyously to the limit of strength. The sacrifice is yielded to to the\nbleeding point. But these all come as they come, _through and out of\nobedience._ Yet need _is_ the controlling thing, too, _but_ not the need\nas _we_ see it, but as _He_ sees it, who sees all, and feels most deeply.\nThe need is best met, the service best given, the sacrifice most healing\nin its power, as each grows out of obedience.\n\n_The standard of obedience_ is three-fold, the Word of God, the Spirit of\nGod, and one's own judgment and spirit-insight. These three are meant to\nfit together. This is the natural result when things are, even measurably,\nas they should be. When God is allowed to sway the life as He wishes,\nthese three fit and blend perfectly. The Word of God taken alone will lead\nto superstitious regard for a book and to a cramped judgment and action.\nTo say that we are guided by the Spirit, without due regard for the Book\nHe has been the principal one in writing, leads to fanaticism, or at least\nto ill-advised, unbalanced, unnatural opinions and action.\n\nNaturally one's own judgment and spirit-insight play a large part, for\nthey make the personal decision, they interpret both Word and Spirit to\nus. It is through one's judgment and spirit-insight that the Holy Spirit\nand the Word influence the decision and action. The great essential is the\nhabitual, quiet, broad, thoughtful study of God's Word, with the will and\nlife utterly yielded to the Holy Spirit. So one's spirit is trained to\nunderstand, and one's judgment to form its conclusions. The Holy Spirit\nmakes us understand God's purpose as revealed in His Word, and fits this\ninto the need of practical life. Obedience, intelligent and full, depends\nupon the quiet time alone with God over His Word.\n\nI want to add something more here. It is something startling. _There are\nno break-downs in the path of obedience_. I say that very softly, as a\nguilty sinner in the matter of break-downs. I remember that the record of\nChristian service is like one continuous record of break-downs, broken\nbodies, wrecked nerves, sometimes wrecked minds. And I am not saying it to\ncriticize any one, except it be myself. Out of a long personal experience\nof constant going, unwise overwork, and serious break-downs, I am but\nconfessing my own sins, when I say there are no break-downs in the path of\nobedience. Does that mean that there is much earnest service that we have\nnot been told to do? And the answer must be a very gentle, but very clear,\n\"Yes.\"\n\nBut the Man in command has perfect knowledge of what you can do. And _He\nnever asks you to do anything beyond your strength_. Or, if He does need\nyou to meet some emergency beyond your strength, He gives the strength\nrequired. He sends in a fresh supply of resurrection life to repair the\nwaste of your body, and then, too, He calls into use strength, resources,\ntalents, that you have not known you had. Now I know that if this be\ntaken seriously, it will lead some to a heart-searching time alone with\nthe Master. I am sure that if obedience alone is to be the key-note, it\nwill mean many a readjustment. And it will mean, too, a new flood stream\nof power flowing through and out as the connecting parts are re-adjusted.\n\nThere's a helpful literal reading of a verse in Hebrews.[108] \"Now the God\nof peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great\nShepherd of the sheep, with the blood of an eternal covenant, _put you in\njoint [with Himself]_ to do _His_ will in every good work, working in you\n[or through you] that which is well-pleasing in His sight.\" Obedience puts\nus in joint with Him, if we are out. It keeps us in joint; then the power\nflows from Him, through that joint, out where our life touches.\n\nObedience is really a music word. It is the rhythmic swinging together of\ntwo wills, His and ours. Rhythm of action is power. Rhythm of colour is\nbeauty. Rhythm of sound is music. But it's really all music. For power is\nmusic of action. Beauty is music to the eye. Rhythmic sound is music to\nthe ear and heart. If there might be more of this music, He and we in\nperfect accord, how the crowds would be caught by its melody and come\neagerly to listen.\n\n\n\nThe Heart of Love.\n\n\nAnd out of the vision comes the heart of love. The sight of the Lord\nJesus' face begets love; and love begets obedience. But obedience never\ncan keep true away from its father. It is never true full obedience except\nit have the throbbing heart of love in it. This is the unfailing mark.\nIt's so easy to fail here. Yet \"love never faileth.\" The classical\nThirteenth of First Corinthians becomes an indictment. We know it better\nin the Book than in life. \"Love suffereth long, ... _envieth_ not ... is\nnot puffed up; doth not behave itself unbecomingly or inconsistently,\nseeketh not even its own, is not provoked.\" Love \"beareth\" with \"all\nthings\" in the one loved, which it would gladly have different, \"believeth\nall\" possibly good \"things\" of him, \"hopeth\" for \"all\" desirable \"things\"\nin him, \"endureth all things\" in him that hurt and pain. \"Love _never_\nfaileth.\" In conversation one day with an unusually earnest worker in the\nOrient, we were talking of these things. His work was beset by many sore\nperplexities. \"Ah,\" he said, \"there is where I have failed. I have not had\nthe heart of love.\" And I thought how many of us could say the same thing.\n\nThere are in the Bible three great illustrations of the heart of love. As\nMoses came down from the presence of God, and found the people dancing\nabout the golden calf, he was hotly indignant. But as he goes back to\nplead with God, the greatness of his love and grief comes out. In God's\npresence their sin is seen to be so much greater. He cries, \"Oh, this\npeople have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now\nif Thou wilt forgive their sin----\" And a great sob breaks the sentence\nabruptly off, and it is never finished. The possibility seems to come to\nhis mind, in this holy presence, that such sin, by these so greatly blest,\ncould not be forgiven. And that seems to him unbearable. \"And if not,\" if\nit cannot be forgiven, \"_blot me_, I pray Thee, _out of Thy Book_; but\ndon't blot them out.\"[109]\n\nIn the beginning of the great Jew section of Romans, Paul is speaking of\nthe intense pain of heart he had over the unbelief and stubbornness of his\nracial kinsfolk. He says, \"I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my\nheart. For I could wish _that I myself were accursed_ from Christ for my\nbrethren's sake, my kinsmen,\" that so they might not be accursed.[110] Yet\nneither Moses nor Paul could so sacrifice himself for another's sin. \"No\nman can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for\nhim.\"[111] But Jesus, the pure, sinless one, _was_ blotted out. He _was_\nmade a curse. Moses and Paul would if they could. Jesus both could and\ndid. Was there ever such a heart of love! And that heart was greatest in\nits action of love when it broke.\n\nA simple story has come to me, I cannot remember where, of a woman in\nsouthern China in the province of Kwangtung. She had a serious illness and\nwas taken to a mission hospital in Canton for treatment. There for the\nfirst time she heard of Christ, of His love and death. And that story\ncoming so new and fresh transformed her, as she opened her heart to the\nSaviour. And a great peace came into her heart, and showed plainly in her\nface. Then her thought began turning to her own village. Not a soul there\nknew of this wondrous Saviour. If they but knew. But what could she do,\nher illness was very serious.\n\nThe next time the physician came by she asked him how long she would live\nif she stayed there. He said that he did not know, but he thought about\nsix months. And how long if she left the hospital and returned home. He\ndidn't know; maybe three months. And after he had gone she quietly\nannounced that she was going home. And those about her were greatly\nastonished. \"Why,\" they said, \"you'll lose half your life!\" And the tears\ncame into her eyes, as a gentle smile overspread her poor worn face, and\nshe simply said, \"Jesus gave His whole life for me; don't you think I'm\nglad to give half mine for Him?\" I don't know how long she lived. The\nstory didn't say, but it did tell that most of the people in her village\nknew a long life, even an everlasting life, because of her simple telling\nof the Gospel story.\n\nThere were the three essentials, though never so thought of or analyzed\nby her. She had the vision of Jesus Christ her Saviour, then of those who\nhad never heard of Him, and then of her own part in the plan of telling\nthem. The impulse to tell them was obeyed gladly. And the heart of love\ncounted not her life dear unto herself if only others might be told of\nthis wondrous Christ Jesus.\n\n\n\n\nFellow-Followers\n\n\n\nGod's Problem.\n\n\nGod needs men. That is the tremendous fact that stands out in every\ngeneration. There never has been a corner since Adam walked out of Eden\nwhere that need was not thrust into some man's face, and thrust into God's\nface. It is being thrust into our faces to-day as ever before, and as\nnever before. For the ends of the earth are come upon us, for the helping\ntouch of our hands, _or_ for the drag-back to be overcome by some one's\nelse helping touch.\n\nGod is a needy God. That fact is spelled out by every page of this old\nBook of His. And it is spelling itself out anew by the book of the life of\nthe race whose current chapter is being written by our generation. God's\nwonderful plan for man lies at the root of His need. In His great\ngraciousness He made us in His own image. That is, He gave to us the right\nof full free choice. He has never infringed upon that image, that right of\nchoice, by so much as a whispered breath or the moving of a hair. He gave\nman the sovereignty of the earth and its life. And every move God has made\namong men on earth has been through a man, and through his free consent.\n\nThe tragedy of sin has intensified God's need tremendously. It has\nintensified everything, man's misunderstanding and hatred of God, the love\nof God's heart for man, and the distance between the two. It is constantly\nintensifying pain, sorrow, man's need, and the blight upon nature. It\nincreases God's difficulty in working out His will of love for man. For it\nmakes it increasingly hard to get even Christian men to see things through\nGod's eyes, and gladly give themselves up to His purposes.\n\nPoor God! Such a needy God! Rich in power, in character, in the loving\nworship of the upper world, in His love for all, rich beyond power of\nhuman calculation; so poor in the response of men to the wooing of His\nheart. So poor in the glad, intelligent co-operation of those who trust\nHim for salvation in the next world, but are content with very little of\nit in this. So needy in the lack of those who bring love and life,\nintellect and wealth, and lay all at His feet.\n\nThis has been God's problem, to respect the rights He has given man, and\nyet work through him in carrying out His great plan of love. This is the\nwarp into which the whole of the Bible fabric is woven--the tragedy of\nsin, of sin-hurt, sin-stubborned men, the patience of God in wooing men\nback, and His exquisite tact and unlimited patience is always working\n_through_ men's consent, and through human channels.\n\nTo-day He comes to you and me, pleadingly asking us to help Him in His\npassionate plan for His race. Some few have the gift of leadership. Most\nof us are moulded to follow. He needs both leader and follower. He needs\nthe _life_. He needs the _love_. Through these, whether in prominent place\nor shadowed, in leadership or in following along some well-beaten path,\nthrough these--the _life_, the _love_, He works in His great simple plan\nfor overcoming the tragedy of sin. That plan includes the whole race. God\nhas no favourites among the nations. When the hour is ripe for an advance\nstep, a man is found ripened for leadership. This is the real final\nexplanation of certain great leaders. It was not the man himself alone,\nbut the coming together of the time, the man, and the plan; the time for\nan advance step, the man who had yielded to God up to the ripening point,\nthe plan of God. And the decisive thing was the plan of God.\n\nPresident Finney used to insist very earnestly that revivals followed a\nfixed law of action. When men would with all their hearts fit into the\ngreat laws of grace, there would follow the gracious revival results even\nas effect follows cause in nature; and without question he was wholly\nright. In addition to this, however, there is a further fact to note, of\nwhich Finney himself was a striking illustration. In God's broader plans\nfor the race when the time is ripe for an advance step, He has some man in\ntraining for leadership in that hour, and so ripeness of time and of man\nand of plan come together. But the chief factor at work is God Himself.\n\nThis, and only this, explains fully certain great religious movements and\nleaders. Such men in later centuries as Luther in Germany, Zwingli in\nSwitzerland, Calvin in France and Switzerland, Wesley and Whitefield in\nEngland, and Finney in both America and England. Only this can\nsatisfactorily explain Moody's unusual career. He was a man of strong\nnative parts, of marked individuality, and of utter surrender to God. And\nthis combination would have brought great results under any circumstances,\nbut it does not explain the great movement in which he was the leader. It\nwas God's hour for an advance movement, the man so untrained in men's\nschools, was slowly made ready in God's school, and man and hour and plan\nfitted together. But the chief emphasis remains on the fact that it was\nthe time in God's gracious plan for an advance. And the nations of the\nearth have been feeling the blessed impulse of that advance ever since.\n\nBut the leaders are few; and what could they do without the great mass of\nfollowers? God needs the faithful ones, unknown by name, hidden away in\nquiet corners, each the centre of a group which is touching a larger\ngroup, and so on, ever widening. Everything turns on this,--letting God\nhave the full use of us; living as though God were the realest thing in\nthis matter-of-fact, every-day world; going on the supposition that the\nBible is indeed His Word, and is a workable book for daily problems and\nneeds, the one workable book; making everything bend toward getting His\nwill done. When we get up into His presence, this will be found to have\nbeen the one thing worth while. When the race story has been all told, the\nbiography of earth brought to its last page, this will be the one thing\nthat will stand out, and remain, that we let Him use us just as He would,\nand that we have brought everything at our disposal to bear on doing His\nwill of love.\n\nHe comes to you and me afresh to-day with His old-time winsome patience,\nasking the use of us. He always thinks of us in two ways, for our own\nsakes and for our help in reaching the others. Followers are messengers.\nSome are special messengers in speech. But all are messengers in their\nlives; that is, they are meant to be. This is our Lord's plan. He wants us\nto _live_ the message.\n\nThat old word \"witness\" has grown to mean three things, that you _know_\nsomething, that you _tell_ it, and that you tell it _with your life_.\nEvery time the word witness is used in the New Testament it stands for\nsome form of the word underneath from which our English word \"martyr\"\ncomes. We have come to associate that word \"martyr\" with the idea of\ngiving one's life in a violent way for the truth believed. This is the\nmeaning that has grown into the word. But the practical meaning of this\nmartyr-witness word goes a bit deeper yet than this. It is not merely\ngiving the life out in the crisis of dying, but that the whole life is\nbeing given out in a continual martyrdom, that is, a continual witnessing.\nThese words, follower, messenger, witness, run together. In following we\nare witnesses. We know something about this Man who goes before, a blessed\nsomething that has entered into the marrow and joints of one's being. We\ntell it. We tell it chiefly by living it. We are messengers. The whole\nlife is a message of what Christ Jesus has done for us, and is to us.\n\n\n\nA Confession of Faith in Wood and Nails.\n\n\nNow, this is the thing--this _living it_--that God has always counted on\nmost. There are in the Bible most striking illustrations of lived or\n_acted messages_. One man actually preached a sermon nearly fifteen months\nlong merely by the position of his body. You would call that a long\nsermon, but it had the desired result, at least partly. The man got the\nears of the people. They were hardened sermon listeners. The talked\nsermons had no effect. So they were given an acted sermon.\n\nI think it may help to look at a few of the old-time followers. The one\nchief thing that marked these men was that they _lived the messages_. They\nexperienced the truth they stood for, sometimes to the extent of much\nsuffering. This _experience_ became part of the man's life. And this it\nwas that God used as His message. You cannot be a follower fully without\nthe thing taking your very life, and taking it to the feeling,\ndeep-feeling, point.\n\nOne of the earliest of these followers was _Enoch_. His brief story is\nlike the first crocus of spring coming up through the cold snow, like a\npretty flower growing up out of the thin crack of earth between great\nstones. There was such a contrast with the surroundings. It is in the\nFifth of Genesis, one of the most tiresome chapters in the whole Bible.\nIts tiresome monotony is an evidence of its inspiration; for it is a\npicture of life with God left out. There are five chapters in Enoch's\nbiography. He was born; with that he had nothing to do. Like his lineal\ndescendants and his neighbours he just \"_lived\"_ for a while, went through\nthe usual physical and mental and social motions of life, no more. Then a\nbabe came into his household, a fresh act of God, a fresh call of God, one\nof God's loudest calls. This was the turning point. He must have heard and\nanswered that call, for a new life began. He \"walked with God.\" This\nbecame his chief trait. It stands in contrast with his former life. Before\nhe merely _lived_; now he was on a higher plane, he _walked with God_. The\nfinal chapter,--\"God took him.\" They two had a long walk one day along the\nhilltops--or was it only a short walk?--and Enoch never came back. God\nkept him.\n\nNow, in all this Enoch was God's messenger to the whole race. Jude speaks\nof his prophesying or preaching. But the emphasis of this simple Genesis\nbiography is not on his preaching but on himself. That man walking about\nin his simple daily touch of heart with God,--that was the message. It\nwasn't an easy thing to do. The whole set of his time was against it. It\nwas an evil time; impurity and violence were its outstanding traits.\nEnoch's life cut straight across the grain of his time. He was the leader\nof the first racial family, the chief one in the direct line from Adam.\nAnd he insisted on living habitually a simple, holy, pure life, walking\nwith God, never out of touch. _Following meant keeping in step with God,\nnever missing step_.\n\nAnd this was talked about. Every one knew it. He was doubtless felt to be\nout of touch with his time. And he was, blessedly out of touch. It was\nprobably never harder to walk with God. But he did it. This is how he\nhelped God. This is what he was asked to do. God was speaking to the whole\nrace through this great man's simple habit of life. And He spoke still\nlouder when, one day, He took him away. Enoch's absence was the talk of\nthe race. \"He was not _found_.\" Clearly they looked for him, looked\neverywhere and discussed him and his peculiar manner of life, his strange\ndisappearance, and his freedom from death.\n\nSo he met God's need. He became God's medium of communication to the\nentire race, simply in what he was, and so it is that most of us may help\nGod. And if we will, He will be less needy, for He will speak through our\nlives to all whom we touch. Following means walking with God. So we help\nGod in His need.\n\nAnd Enoch helped God to get _Noah_. The touch of Enoch is on his\ngreat-grandson. Grace _is_ hereditary, when there's enough of it. Enoch\nhad the boldness to set a new standard. It was easier for Noah to reach up\ntoward it, when it was already set. Now, Noah was asked to do something\nmore. Enoch walked with God, the personal life was the one thing. Noah\nwalked with God, _and_ did something more.\n\nHe was asked to believe something unusual. It was something that could be\nbelieved only by accepting God's word against every other circumstance and\nprobability; that is, that a flood was coming to cover the whole earth,\nand destroy the race. And he was asked further to put his belief into the\nshape of an immense house-boat probably built where it wouldn't float\nexcept such a flood did come. That huge boat was his confession of faith.\nHe acted his faith. It would be a costly thing, perhaps taking all Noah's\nwealth, and taking some years to build. That belief was about the\nunlikeliest thing imaginable from every natural standpoint, _with God left\nout_. And God is _practically_ left out, except as a very last\nquestionable consideration, then, and ever since, and to-day. Probably\nNoah was the butt of gossip and ridicule, quite possibly of scandal and\nreproach, year after year, by the whole race; and he would feel it, and\nfeel it for his family's sake. That boat and its dreaming builder were the\nstanding joke of the time. He was regarded as a fool, a fanatic, a poor,\nunbalanced enthusiast, building his gigantic boat on dry land! Perhaps\nsome regretted that he brought the cause of religion into reproach by\nbeing such an extremist.\n\nYet the only thing he did was to believe God's word, and to shape his\nconduct accordingly. He simply did as God asked. He heard God correctly.\nHis ears were trained to hear. He did what God wanted, regardless of what\npeople thought. That was how he helped God in His need. The race was saved\nthrough this fresh start, else it had burned out long ago. Following meant\na true life lived, _and faith in God expressed in wood and nails, and in\ngood money paid out_, while men met him coldly on the road, or jeered.\n\n\n\nBefriending God.\n\n\nLong years afterward there was another man who helped God so decidedly\nthat he became known as \"the friend of God.\" And the word \"friend\" is used\nthis time in the emergency sense. He did the thing God asked him to do,\nand this helped God in a plan He was working out for the whole race. God\nhad to have a man. Abraham was willing to be the man. And in that he\nbecame God's helpful friend. The thing God asked him to do seems very\nsimple, and yet it was a radical thing for this man to do. He was to leave\nhis father's family, and all his kinsfolk, and live _a separated life_,\nboth from them and from all others. It is almost impossible for the West\nto realize how close and strong family ties are in the Orient. Separation\nmeant an unusual, sad break in holiest ties. God was trying a new step in\nHis fight against sin. He had separated the leader of sin from all\nothers.[112] He had removed all the race except a seed of good.[113] Both\nof these plans had failed, through man's failure. Now a new,\nfarther-reaching plan is begun. A man is separated from all others, to\nbecome the seed of a new nation, a _faith_ nation, which should be a\ndifferent people from others, embodying in themselves God's ideals for\nall.\n\nAbraham is asked to become a separated man in a peculiar sense, separate\noutwardly, separate in his worship of the true God, and separate in living\na _faith_ life. It was to be a life dependent wholly on God regardless of\nouter circumstance or difficulty. There was a training time of twenty-five\nyears before Abraham was ready for the next step,--the bringing of the\nnext in line of this new faith stock. Separation, then still further\nseparation, an open stand for God in the land of strangers, then a series\nof close personal tests, each entering into the marrow of his life,--this\nwas the training to get the man ready to be a _faith_ father to his son,\nthe next in line of a faith people. And the hardest test of all came\nafter the child of faith had grown to manhood. Then he became a child of\nfaith in his own experience, as well as in his father's. Following meant\nseparation. It meant believing God against the unlikeliest circumstances,\nagainst nature itself, hoping in the midst of hopelessness. Everything\nspelled out \"hopelessness.\" God alone spelled out \"hope.\" He took God\nagainst everything else. It meant going to school to God, until he could\nbe used as God planned. And Abraham consented. He followed. He helped God\nin His need. He befriended God; he became His friend in His need.\n\nBut _every_ generation needs men. Each new step in the plan needs a new\nman. In a sore crisis of that plan, long after, another man's name,\n_Moses_, is known to us, _only_ because he singled himself out as being\nwilling to let God use him. In his unconscious training, the training of\ncircumstances into which it was natural to fit, he was peculiarly prepared\nfor the future task. Bred in Egypt as the son of the ruler's household, he\nreceived the best school training of his day, with all the peculiar\nadvantages of his position in the royal family.\n\nFollowing meant more to Moses, in what he gave up of worldly advantage,\nthan to any other named in the Bible record. Egypt was the world empire of\nthat day. Moses was in the innermost imperial circles, and could easily\nhave become the dominant spirit of the court, if not the successor to the\nPharaoh's throne. But he heard the call. His mother helped train his ears.\nHe answered \"Yes\" to God, without knowing how much was involved. Following\nmeant giving up, then a long course of training in the university of the\ndesert, with the sheep and the stars and--God. It meant a repeated risking\nof his life not only in his bold dealings with Pharaoh, but afterward with\nthe nation-mob, mob-nation, whose leader, and father and school-teacher,\nand everything else, he had to be for forty years. And it meant much on\nthe other side, too.\n\n    \"Had Moses failed to go, had God\n      Granted his prayer, there would have been\n      For him no leadership to win;\n    No pillared fire; no magic rod,\n    No smiting of the sea; no tears\n      Ecstatic, shed on Sinai's steep;\n      No Nebo, with a God to keep\n    His burial; only forty years\n      Of desert, watching with his sheep.\"\n\n\n\nA Yet Deeper Meaning.\n\n\nWhen we turn to the leaders of the latter years of the Kingdom time of\nGod's teacher-nation, the prophetic time, there is one thing that stands\nout sharply in the men God used. It was this, a man's inner personal life\nand experience were made use of to an unusual degree. It is as though the\nsacred inner life were sacrificed. The holy privacies were laid bare to\nthe public gaze. The sweets of the inner holy of holies of the personal\nlife were given up. The people were so far God-hardened that only _acted_\npreaching, _lived_ messages, that took it out of one's very life, with\npain in the taking, had any effect.\n\nThis is most markedly so in the case of _Hosea_, whose experience it seems\nalmost if not wholly impossible for us to take in.[114] It is true that\nthe Christianized West has conceptions of personal privacy to which the\nEast is a stranger. Yet, even so, the way in which these men were asked to\nyield up their inner personal lives, must have been a most marked thing to\nthese Orientals. For God used it as the one thing apparently, the extreme\nthing, to touch their hearts with His appeal.\n\n_Isaiah_ had just such peculiar experiences. The birth of a son is planned\nfor, and told of for the purpose of making more emphatic the message to\nthe dull ears and slow heart of the nation.[115] His two sons bore names\nof strange meaning, as a means of teaching truths that were peculiarly\ndistasteful to the people. Isaiah takes one of these strangely named sons\nas he goes to deliver a message to the king. And the son standing by his\nfather's side is a reminder in his name of a disagreeable truth.[116] A\nlittle later the man is actually required to go about barefooted, and\nwithout clothing sufficient for conventional respectability, and to\ncontinue this for three years.[117] When we remember that he was not an\nerratic extremist, but a sober-minded, fine-grained gentleman of\nrefinement and of a good family, it helps us to understand a little how\nhard-hearted and stubborn were a people that could be appealed to only in\nsuch a way.\n\nAnd it tells us, too, how utterly surrendered was the man who was willing\nthus to give up his private personal life. How much easier to have been\nsimply an earnest, eloquent preacher, with his inner personal life lived\nfree from public gaze, a thing sacred to himself. Following meant the\ngiving up of the sacred private life to a strangely marked degree, for God\nto use.\n\nEven more marked are the experiences that _Jeremiah_ was asked and\nconsented to go through. It would seem as though the repeated conspiracies\nagainst his life, the repeated imprisonments in vile dungeons dangerous to\nhealth and life, and the shame of being put in the public stocks before\nthe rabble, would have been much for God to ask, and for a man to give.\nBut there is something that goes much farther and deeper into the very\nmarrow of his life than these. He is bidden not to marry, not to have a\nfamily life of his own.[118] And he obeyed. This was to be so only and\nsolely as a message to the people. A message couched in such startling\nlanguage they might listen to. Again we must remember the Oriental setting\nto appreciate the significance of this. In the East the unit of society is\nnot the individual but the _family_. A man's marriage is planned for by\nthe family, as a means of building up the family. To be childless and\nespecially son-less was felt to be peculiarly unfortunate, almost\nbordering on disgrace.\n\nThis meant for Jeremiah not only the loss of personal joys and delights,\nbut that his line would be broken off from his father's family. He would\nbe without heir, or future, in the family history. So following meant\ngoing yet deeper into the inner personal life, for the sake of God's plan.\nThis giant's strength is revealed in nothing more than in his tear-wet\nlaments over his people. And he gave all this strength to following. He\nsaid \"Yes\" to God's need and request, though it must have taken his very\nlife to say it.\n\nBut _Ezekiel_ was asked to do something even beyond this. He was the\nmessenger of God to the colony of Hebrew exiles in Assyria. His accounts\nof the visions of God reveal a remarkable power of detailed description,\nand a remarkably strong mentality. Strange to say, these people in\ncaptivity are yet harder to reach than were their fathers in their native\nland. Yet, not strange, for the human heart is the same when it won't open\nto the purifying of the upper currents of air. Here the man himself\nliterally became the message. He actually lay upon his left side for\nthirteen months and then on his right side for six weeks longer.\n\nDuring all that time he ate food that was particularly repugnant, and it\nwas carefully weighed out, and the water as carefully measured out for\nhis use. He had to rise, no doubt, for various reasons, but the bulk of\nthe time for nearly fifteen months he lay out where all could see him. His\nfellow-exiles, I suppose, looked and wondered, laughed and gossiped\nperhaps, and then as time wore on, they thought and thought more, and were\nawed as they began slowly to take in the meaning of this strange message\nof God. Thereafter Ezekiel was the leader, to whose house the leaders of\nthe colony came, and to whose words they intently listened.\n\nBut there was a yet deeper meaning to following than we have found yet. It\nis a meaning that awes one's heart into amazed silence. He was married.\nHis wife is spoken of very tenderly as \"the desire of thine eyes.\" He was\ntold that she would be taken away out of his life. She would die. That was\nthe great thing. Then he was not to mourn outwardly for her; this was the\nsecond thing. He was to be before the people as though the greatest sorrow\nof his life had not happened. Is it any wonder the people came astonished\nto know what this meant? The simple brevity with which he tells of the\noccurrence takes hold of one's heart. \"So I spake unto the people in the\nmorning; and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was\ncommanded.\"[119] There was no questioning, no hesitancy of action, but a\nsimple, prompt obedience, even though his heart was breaking. This was\nwhat God asked of him. God needed this in His dealings with these people\nof His in whom His world-plan centred. How desperate must have been the\nneed that called for such an experience as this! Ezekiel said \"Yes\" even\nto this. Surely there was here some of that Calvary meaning, of the\nsecondary sort, of which we have spoken together. Following meant not only\ngiving his personality and life, but now it meant giving what must have\nbeen more than life itself.\n\n\n\n\nThrough Fire.\n\n\nTo _Daniel_ following meant something essentially different. He was not a\nmessenger to his own people, nor their leader. He was a messenger to the\ngreat world-rulers of his time, through the visions he interpreted, and\nthrough his unbending faithfulness and purity of life; The thing that\nstands out largest is the life he lived, a life of simplicity in habit, of\npurity and consistency, with an unwavering faith in God. God _could_ use\nhim to speak to the great emperors. So he helped God to get His message to\nmen so hard to reach through a human channel.\n\nFollowing meant a pure life. It was Daniel's insistence on being pure and\ntrue that shut him up with the wild beasts. And it was through his\nunflinching fidelity and persistence that God could send His message anew,\nin the most public manner, out to all the millions of that great\nworld-empire. Following meant to a marked degree a pure life as the basis\nof the service rendered. It proved to mean a lions' den, _and_ the power\nof God overcoming the instincts of ravenous beasts. But clear beyond these\nit meant that God could reach His world with His message to an unusual\nextent.\n\n_Daniel's three companions_ helped God by means of a most thrilling\nexperience, a really terrible experience. God had been pleading with the\ngreat Nebuchadnezzar through Daniel's message. Now He wants to speak again\nin a way that will compel attention. He needs these three young men. They\nconsent to be His messengers. It meant going through a terrible ordeal.\nThey simply remained true in their personal devotion to God. This was the\nthing God needed, and used. Everything of use to God roots down in the\nlife. The personal plea of the great king, and the prospect of a horrible\ndeath fail alike to move them. They probably had quite resigned themselves\nto the fate of being burned alive for the truth. But God had a different\npurpose. He was thinking about this ruler with whom He dealt so personally\nand unusually, time and again.\n\nThe three men, walking quietly up and down in the seven-times heated\nfurnace in company with a glorious looking person \"like a son of the\ngods\"--this was the message God wanted spoken to the ruler He was pleading\nwith. His strangely marvellous power, and His personal regard for His\nfaithful followers--this was what God was trying to say to Nebuchadnezzar.\nHe asked the use of these three young men. Their personal loyalty to\nHimself even unto death--this was what He wanted. _Through_ this He\nreached the heart of the man He was after.\n\nThe experience of these men is an intensely interesting study. It was a\nfearful ordeal that they went through. Yet it was wholly mental, and of\nthe spirit. They suffered no pain of body, nor inconvenience. The fire\nonly made them free, burned up the bonds that held them. It took great\nstrength of will, of decision, to stay steady through all the fearful\ntest. Yet _nothing happened to their bodies_ except to help them. God took\ncare of that. They gave Him what He asked. He gave them more than they\nexpected. They probably expected death and were willing. God had a deeper\nplan He was working out. How glad they must have been that they followed\nfully, that they didn't disappoint God.\n\nFollowing meant simply being true, even though the road led through a\nfurnace. God would attend to the furnace. Their part was simply to follow\nwhere He led. And our God is needing just such acted messages to-day. He\nis longing for just such opportunities to reveal His power and love, not\nmerely _to us_, but through us to His world.\n\nLet us take time for one more of these faithful followers. This time it is\na young woman. It is at the most critical juncture of God's plan, thus\nfar. He needed a woman whom He could use to bring His Son, and could use\nfurther to mother that Son's early years. All unconsciously Mary of\nNazareth and of Bethlehem was fitting into His plan in her life, her\nsimple, pure, godly, personal life. We can understand that God wooed her\nespecially to such a life of heart devotion as a preparation for the after\npart. And she said \"Yes\" to all His wooings, never suspecting what was to\ncome of it. You never know how much a simple \"Yes\" to God may mean, _or_ a\n\"No.\" You never know how much of service may grow out of the true life.\nYet all true service is something coming out of the life.\n\nThen the plan of God was made known to her,--the marvellous plan, yet so\nsimple to Him. And again she said a simple, awed \"Yes.\" She waits only\nlong enough to ask the natural, woman's question as to method. There was\nno questioning of God's power, what He could do, and would do. It came to\nmean hurting suspicion, peculiarly hurting to as pure and gentle a soul as\nshe. Apparently this was unavoidable. It speaks volumes for her openness\nof both mind and heart to God, that she instantly took in Gabriel's\nmeaning, and could take it in that such an unprecedented thing was\npossible. It would have saved her the cruel suspicion if Joseph had been\ntold beforehand, but the whole probability is that he could not have taken\nit in that such a thing was possible.\n\nFollowing meant the glad \"Yes\" to the early wooing up to a pure devoted\nlife. It meant saying a further \"Yes\" to the plan of God even though\nsomething so unusual, and with it the misunderstanding and cruel\nsuspicion, on the one point most sensitive to a woman, and by the one\nnearest her. But she said \"Yes\" both times. She let God have the use of\nher life for His plan. That was all He asked. That is all He asks. But\nthat is what He asks.\n\nThese are a few of the glorious company of followers, the goodly\nfellowship of those who have helped God in His passionate plan for His\nworld, the noble army of willing ones. But the number is incomplete. The\nplan is not yet fully worked out. The need is not yet wholly met. It was\nnever more urgent. To-day the insistent voice still comes as of old,\nasking you and me to follow.\n\nAnd no one can tell how much _his_ following may mean to God in reaching\nHis world.\n\n\n\n\nThe Glory Of The Goal,--Face to Face\n\n\n\n\"With You Always.\".\n\n\nHave you ever _seen Christ_? No, I don't mean have you been to some\nuplifting convention, and been tremendously caught by some talented,\nearnest speaker, and been swayed by the atmosphere of the hour and place,\nand felt that all was not just as it should be with you; and then you\nprayed more, and made some new resolves, or re-made some old ones, and\nleft off some things, and put on some things; I don't mean that, but\nthis--have you ever _seen Christ_?\n\nNo, of course, you don't see Him with these outer eyes. Well, then just\nwhat do I mean practically? _This_--has there come to you a real sense of\nHimself? of His presence? of the tremendous plea His presence makes? and,\npossibly, you don't know just how to answer. You say, \"I'm not just sure,\"\nor \"How can I know?\" Well, you'll never say it that way, nor ask that\nquestion again after the experience has come.\n\nMay I tell you a little bit about it? Yet, mark you, only \"a little bit.\"\nYou can never _tell_ another one what it means to see _Him_. When once the\nsight has come, every word you utter about it, or Him, seems so lame and\nweak that you despair of ever being able to let out at your lips what has\ngotten into you. But let me try, even if lamely, in the eager yearning\nthat it may help you know if, thus far, you have missed seeing _Him_, and\nmaybe--so much better--help you to _see_ Him. For until you have--well,\nnothing, absolutely nothing, is worth while.\n\nWhen you see Him there comes such a sense of _His purity_ that, instantly,\nyou are down on your face in utter despair, because of your own self--your\nimpurity; your lack of purity; the sharp contrast between Him and you. You\nfeel that young Isaiah's outcry in the temple that morning is wholly\ninadequate. \"Unclean lips,\" is it? Why, the whole thing, from innermost\nrecesses clear through and out, is unclean. Then it dawns upon you that\nthis is really what Isaiah is feeling and trying to express in his \"woe\"\nand \"undone.\"\n\nAnd that vivid sense of contrast between Him and you never grows less, but\nmore acute and deeper. Even when you come to know Him better, and the\nsweet peace comes with its untellable balm to your spirit, yet you are\nalways conscious of the contrast, and you know that _you_ are not pure;\nonly _He_ is; and all you can do is to keep under the cleansing stream of\nHis blood, very low down.\n\n    \"Never higher than His pierced feet,\n    Never farther than His bleeding side.\"\n\nWith that comes such a sense of _Himself_, of His--what word can tell\nit?--His glory,--which means simply His character, what He is in\nHimself--that again words can never tell out the sense of your own\nlittleness; no, that is not the word, your own _nothingness_. And now you\nrecall, with an inner shrinking, how well you have thought of yourself,\nhow much you have talked about yourself and your view of things, perhaps\nin the language of a properly phrased humility. Now you are dumb. His\npresence dumbs you. You begin to wonder at the strange self-confidence and\nself-complacence that have been so common even in your holiest moments and\nexperiences. It seems, in this Presence, as though you could never open\nyour lips again--except to speak of _Him_.\n\nThen your eyes are drawn more intently to His person,--His face, His\nwounds. The scars where the thorns tore His great, patient face; the\ngrief-whitened hair, draped above those deep, tender, unspeakable eyes;\nthat strangely rough place in the palm so lovingly outstretched; the\nspear-scar, the nail-marks in those feet coming over to you,--these grip\nyou. Their meaning begins to come. There's cleansing; yes, blessed fact!\nthere's _cleansing_ from this horrid impurity whose stain you are so\nconscious of. Yet, what it cost Him! What my impurity forced upon Him!\nYes, cleansed; blessed Jesus! What a relief to be cleansed! Yet I must\n_stay_ under the stream; only so can the sense of relief be continual.\nAnd I must stay down on my face at His feet. It is the only place for such\nas I discover myself to be. Yet what grace to let me stay at His feet!\n\nHave you _seen Christ_? This is what begins to come when you have--His\npurity, your contrasted lack; His glorious self, your own nothingness in\nyourself; His suffering--the price of your cleansing. This is only a\nbeginning, yet a beginning that comes to be the continuous thing.\n\n\n\nCloser Acquaintance.\n\n\nAfter a little, as you are sitting still in His presence, and have become\na bit quieter after that flush of first emotions at seeing Him, you begin\nto be caught all anew with how _lovable_ He is. This takes great hold of\nyou. I overheard a once-drunken, now thoroughly changed man, up in\nScotland, as he was fairly pouring out his heart in prayer in his sweet,\nbroad Scotch,--\"Once Thou didst have no form or comeliness to me, but\nnow\"--and it seemed as if all the pent-up feelings within rushed at once\nto flood-tide--\"_now_ Thou art the chiefest among ten thousand, and the\nOne altogether lovely.\" And the high-water mark of the flood was touched\non \"chiefest\" and \"altogether.\"\n\nThat first look made you think mostly of your-self--an inner loathing. Now\nyou think of _Him_. He is so lovable, so true and tender, and patient and\npure; again your language gives out, and you feel better content just to\nlook without trying to use words. They're such poor things when it comes\nto telling about Him. He is so much more than anything that can be said\nabout Him. His will is so wise and thoughtful and far-reaching and loving.\nStrange how stupid you have been in insisting so strenuously and blindly\non having your own way. His plan, His thought about everything concerning\nyou, is _so_ superb. And He asks me to be His follower. What joy! What if\nthe way be a bit rough; it's following _Him_; that's enough. He calls me\nto be His personal friend. I can hardly take it in,--His _friend_? Yes,\nthat's His own word. Well, let any thorns tear because of the narrowing of\nthe road; I'm His friend, man, do you hear? His _friend_,--do you get hold\nof that word? What can any thorn thing do against that!\n\n\"We\" may go hand in hand now,--His is pierced; I feel the scar where our\nhands touch. But we're together at last, _the_ thing He has been working\nfor. I can feel His presence. I can hear the low music of His voice\nwithin. Thorns don't count here. Oh, yes, I _feel_ them; they haven't lost\ntheir power to slash and sting,--but--with _Him_ so close\nalongside!--Wondrous Christ, here I am at Thy feet, Thy glad slave\nforever. I'm wholly Thine. It's my own choice. I'll never go any other way\nby Thy grace. This is the second bit that comes, the glad surrender of\nlife to His mastery. Do you know about this? You will, when you've _seen\nChrist_.\n\nThen you come to know, without being able to tell just how, that He is\nnot only _with_ you, but _within_ you. At first His presence may have\nseemed as something outside yourself. You were looking away at some One\nwho was looking at you. And His look at you broke your heart, and made\nyour will, once so strangely strong in itself, now as strangely pliable to\nHis as only a strong will can be. But now He is living within you. You may\nnot be clear just how the change came. But you do know that there's a\nsomething which you come to know is a some One, who is within. His\npresence is peace past understanding, but not past appreciation. There's a\nlonging for His Word, a desire to talk with Him even when you don't want\nto ask for something, a deep heart-cry for purity, a burning within to\nplease Him. These all seem to come from Him, and at the same time to be\nsatisfied by Himself, even while they remain and increase.\n\nAnd yet more, while this Presence within seems so quietly real and\nexquisitely peace-bringing, there is still the outer presence, the One\nwhose presence it was at the first that brought all this change. Two\npresences, one above, enthroned there; one within, enthroned there; yet\nthey seem the same, as though one personality with two presences had come\ninto your consciousness. There's the Lord Jesus above at the Father's\nright hand; here's the Holy Spirit within at my right hand,[120] yet in\npractical effect they are as one, while one's thought is always directed\nto the Lord Jesus both within and above.\n\nThe Presence within makes you think wholly of the Presence above, who yet\nseems also to be within. You are getting a taste of the practical meaning\nof the Trinity now, three that in effect are as one. But you are too much\ntaken up with the gladness of it to think about the metaphysics of it.\nHe--whether within, or above, or both--is so much more than words. The\nexperience is so much more than any explanation. You are not concerned\nabout the explanation so long as you can have the sweet experience.\n\n\n\nThe Final Goal.\n\n\nThis is the third bit that comes when you've seen Christ, the gracious\nindwelling of the Lord Jesus' other self, the Holy Spirit. But if you have\nseen Him, you are probably not counting steps nor analyzing processes, but\njust singing a bit of joyous praise to Him.\n\nThen there's _the outer turn; He_ does that. He draws you to Himself, and\nyet at the same time sends you away--no, not _from_ Him--_for_ Him, out to\nthe others He hungers after, even as after you. Up, in, out,--so He draws\nand directs, up to Himself, in by contrast to one's self with a holding\nhard to Him while looking within, then a sending out to the others. He\nkindles a fire, He is a fire, drawing, burning, cleansing, warming, then\ndriving you forth, and doing all at the same time. Wondrous fine, this\nfire of love--of His heart--of Himself. The common word for this is\n\"service.\" The word doesn't matter much. Service is a good word. But the\nthing that comes seems so much more than this word seems to contain.\n\nThat hand that was pierced, which has been to you so tender and warm, and\nin its clasp so expressive of this wondrous friendship--that hand now\nleads you where you had not thought of going. _And you go_,--aghast almost\nat first at the radical change in your carefully worked out plans, losing\nyour breath for a moment as you wonder what \"they\" _will_ think (though\n\"they\" never will _understand_, unless--ah, yes, unless they see _Him_).\nThat hand reaches in where your life touches others, in the family, the\nbusiness circle, the social circle, and moulds you over anew in the old\nrelationships, not taking you away from them (though there may be some\npartings), but making you a new presence in the midst of them.\n\nThat hand reaches into your pocket, and your safety-deposit box, in among\nthe title papers and securities, and shakes off the dust and rust, and\nsends them out on an errand after the others. That fire--Himself--draws\nall into the smelting-pot. Its alchemy transmutes possessions into lives,\nredeemed, sweetened, Jesus-touched, Christ-renewed lives, made like\nHimself. And the sweet music of their new lives comes up into _His_\ngladdened ears, and a few of the strains come to cheer you. One may have\nat first a strange feeling of bareness, for things that we've always clung\nto as essential have gone out from us to others. But with the outgoing of\nthings has come an incoming of _Himself_, in greater abundance than we\ndreamed possible. He, within, completely overbalances what He has sent out\nfrom us into use. _He_--He is _everything_.\n\nThe usual word for all this is \"service,\" a blessed word. Yet service\nseems to suggest your doing something for Him among others. This is quite\ndifferent. It is _His_ doing something _with_ you for others. The thing\nitself is so much more than any word. Christ is so much more than anything\nyou say about Him. The truth is always less than Himself. But one never\nunderstands how much that means till he has seen Christ. Have _you_ seen\nChrist? Then others shall see Him, too, in you, and through you.\n\nThis is the glory of the goal--face to face with Himself. It begins now.\nIt is a very real thing. This is a bit of the meaning of that mountain\nbeatitude, \"the pure in heart ... shall _see God_.\" Yet only he who sees\nunderstands what seeing means. The subtle intensity of God's presence\ncannot be explained, only understood by the purified in heart. Only the\nopened eyes see.\n\nBut this is only a beginning. There will be the far greater glory of the\nfinal goal, as we come into His immediate presence, literally face to\nface. That may be when we are called away from the lower road up to the\nhigher reaches, above the clouds and the blue, the glory-reaches, up where\nHe now sits. It may be by that goal coming nearer, by Himself actually\ncoming on the clouds in great glory, for His own and for the next chapter\nin His great world-plan. Then we shall be caught up into His presence.\nThen we shall be fully like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.\n\nAnd we shall be sharers in His glory, in the Kingdom time of glad earth\nservice. But we shall be thinking only of Himself--face to face.\n\n\n\n\nFootnotes\n\n\n[1] John i. 1, 2, 14, 18; Colossians i. 15; II Corinthians iv. 4;\nPhilippians ii. 6; Hebrews i. 3.\n\n[2] John xv. 15; Psalm xxv. 14; Isaiah xli. 8; II Chronicles xx. 7; James\nii. 23.\n\n[3] Matthew iv. 4; where the emphatic word is \"man,\" standing in contrast\nwith \"Son of God\" in verse 3.\n\n[4] Acts xvii. 28; Job xii. 10; Daniel v. 23 l.c.; Psalm cxxxix. 1-16.\n\n[5] Philippians ii. 6-8.\n\n[6] Romans xii. 19; Deuteronomy xxxii. 35; Psalm xciv. 1; Proverbs xx. 22;\nI Peter ii. 23; I Corinthians xiii. 5, second clause.\n\n[7] John xi. 41, 42; xii. 27, 28; Luke x. 21.\n\n[8] Deuteronomy viii. 17, 18.\n\n[9] Matthew v. 3.\n\n[10] John viii. 28, 29.\n\n[11] Genesis i. 26-28.\n\n[12] 1 Philippians ii. 8; Hebrews v. 8; Romans v. 19 l.c.; John x. 18 l.c.\n\n[13] Hebrews ii. 18.\n\n[14] Hebrews xii. 29.\n\n[15] Romans iii. 26, latter half; free reading--\"that He (God) might be\nseen to be just and righteous in forgiving a man's sin when he trusted in\nJesus.\"\n\n[16] Eden: delight.\n\n[17] Genesis ii. 8-20.\n\n[18] Genesis iii. 8, 9\n\n[19] Genesis iv.-vi.\n\n[20] Genesis vi. 6; Deuteronomy v. 29; Psalm lxxxi. 13; Isaiah xlviii. 18.\n\n[21] Mark xii. 1-8; II Chronicles xxxvi. 15, 16--These passages, and many\nsimilar, while speaking directly of the one nation Israel, are giving a\npicture of the heart of God toward all men, and His habit of action.\nIsrael itself was the messenger-nation, whose life was meant to be God's\nmessage of love to all the race.\n\n[22] John i. 1-18, especially verses 1-5, 14.\n\n[23] John i. 14 f.c.\n\n[24] Matthew ii. 22, 23.\n\n[25] John i. 19-28.\n\n[26] E. C. Clephane.\n\n[27] Psalm xl. 8 f.c.; John iv. 34; Hebrews xii. 2.\n\n[28] Matthew xi. 28.\n\n[29] Matthew iv. 19, with Luke v. 1-11.\n\n[30] Matthew xi. 29, 30.\n\n[31] John xiii. 31-xvi. 33.\n\n[32] John xx. 21.\n\n[33] Matthew xxviii. 18-20.\n\n[34] John i. 35-42.\n\n[35] Matthew iv. 18-22, with Luke v. 1-11.\n\n[36] Matthew x. 1-5; Mark iii. 14-19; Luke vi. 12-17.\n\n[37] Matthew xvi. 13-28.\n\n[38] Matthew xvi. 24; Mark viii. 34; Luke ix. 23.\n\n[39] Matthew xxvi. 58.\n\n[40] John xxi. 15-19.\n\n[41] Acts v. 41.\n\n[42] I John.\n\n[43] Acts i, 1.\n\n[44] Luke xiv. 25-35.\n\n[45] Mark x. 17-22.\n\n[46] In \"Other Sheep,\" by Harold Begbie.\n\n[47] Luke xiv. 25-35, with Matthew v. 13.\n\n[48] Luke xxi. 28.\n\n[49] Mark x. 17-22.\n\n[50] Acts xxii. 11, with ix. 1-9.\n\n[51] Luke xxiv. 40; John xx. 20.\n\n[52] John i. 19-28.\n\n[53] Romans viii. 34; Hebrews vii. 25.\n\n[54] I John ii. 1; Hebrews ix. 24.\n\n[55] Isaiah xi 2; lxi. 1, with Luke iv. 18-21.\n\n[56] Psalm xxv. 3 f.c.\n\n[57] John iii. 34 f.c.\n\n[58] Isaiah xliv. 3; John vii. 37-39.\n\n[59] Acts viii. 4-8, 26-40.\n\n[60] Matthew v. 42.\n\n[61] Isaiah xxxviii. 17, margin.\n\n[62] Matthew iv. 23; ix. 35.\n\n[63] Luke v. 15, 16. The language underneath here suggests a habitual\ngoing aside to pray, as an offset to the work with the crowds.\n\n[64] Matthew xxv. 40.\n\n[65] James i. 2, 3.\n\n[66] Matthew vi. 13.\n\n[67] James i. 13.\n\n[68] Matthew xxvi. 41.\n\n[69] John xiii., xiv.\n\n[70] John xv., xvi.\n\n[71] John xvii.\n\n[72] Lucy Rider Meyer.\n\n[73] Exodus xxxii. 31, 32\n\n[74] Romans ix. 1-3.\n\n[75] II Corinthians iv. 12.\n\n[76] Colossians i. 24.\n\n[77] I Corinthians xv. 3, 4.\n\n[78] Acts i. 1.\n\n[79] Matthew xxvii. 59, 60.\n\n[80] Matthew xxvii. 62, 66.\n\n[81] John xii. 24.\n\n[82] John xii. 20-32.\n\n[83] Isaiah v. 20.\n\n[84] Matthew xvi. 21-28.\n\n[85] John xv.\n\n[86] Hebrews xii. 2.\n\n[87] II Corinthians iii. 18.\n\n[88] Romans viii. 11.\n\n[89] II Corinthians iv. 11. \"Dying\" in these two passages does not mean\nbeing in the process of dissolution, but that the body is subject to\ndeath.\n\n[90] Ephesians i. 20, 21; Acts ii. 33; John xiv. 12, 13; Romans viii.\n34; Hebrews vii. 25; ix. 24.\n\n[91] Colossians iii. I; Ephesians ii. 6.\n\n[92] Psalm xxii. 8, 9.\n\n[93] Revelation ii. 26, 27; v. 10; xx. 4.\n\n[94] Psalm lxxxiv. 11.\n\n[95] Anonymous, in \"Egyptian Mission News,\" copied from S. M. Zwemer's\n\"Unoccupied Fields of the World.\"\n\n[96] Hebrews x. 12, 13.\n\n[97] Revelation ii., iii.\n\n[98] Numbers xiv. 24 xxxii. 12; Deuteronomy i. 36; Joshua xiv. 8, 9, 14.\n\n[99] Matthew xvi. 24.\n\n[100] John xii. 26.\n\n[101] John vi. 70.\n\n[102] Matthew xix. 27.\n\n[103] Luke ix. 51-54.\n\n[104] Genesis xvi.\n\n[105] Galatians ii 11-14.\n\n[106] Luke ii. 49.\n\n[107] Zechariah xiv. 4.\n\n[108] Hebrews xiii. 20, 21.\n\n[109] Exodus xxxii. 31, 32.\n\n[110] Romans ix. 1-3.\n\n[111] Psalm xlix. 7.\n\n[112] Genesis iv. 12-16.\n\n[113] Genesis vi. 17, 18.\n\n[114] Hosea i. 2-9; iii 1-3.\n\n[115] Isaiah vii. 3-17.\n\n[116] Isaiah viii. 1-3.\n\n[117] Isaiah xx. 1-4.\n\n[118] Jeremiah xvi. 1-4.\n\n[119] Ezekiel xxiv. 15-19.\n\n[120] Psalm xvi. 8.","title":"Quiet Talks on Following the Christ","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":57584}